yesterday we were just children playing soliders
by slytherinlarrie
Summary: What if, when Harry heard the Slytherin part of the Hat's song, he payed attention when the Hat sung perhaps in Slytherin, you'll make your real friends? A little boy- friendless, and lonely. A little boy- desperate for the kind of friendship he had read about in books, seen on the television screen. When the Hat offered him Slytherin, imagine that Harry said yes.
The Hat offered Slytherin to Harry. Remember this. Remember that Harry turned it down, only on the basis of a chance meeting in a clothing store, only on the say-so from a boy with red hair and dirt on his nose, only on the basis of two little boys and their biased opinions.

But- but what if he _didn't_? What if eleven year old Harry Potter insisted that Hagrid get a lemonade after the trip to Gringotts, insisted on staying with him while he drank it, until he felt better? What if Harry saw the pale faced boy _leaving_ Madam Malkin's store, as he was walking in?

What if Harry got to platform 9 and ¾ earlier on September 1st? What if an older girl helped him through the wall, a girl with green on her tie and kindness in her eyes? What if, when Harry heard the Slytherin portion of the Hat's song, he payed attention when the Hat sung p _erhaps in Slytherin, you'll make your real friends?_ Imagine this: a little boy- beaten, and ignored, for his entire life. A little boy- friendless, and lonely. A little boy- desperate for the kind of friendship he had read about in books, seen on the television screen.

When the Hat offered him Slytherin, imagine that Harry said _yes_.

* * *

 _Slytherin_ is not a synonym for _evil_. These two traits are _defining_ ones, yes- but they are not interchangeable. They are not always linked. We talk about the people who define Slytherin all the time, but the _traits_ that defineSlytherin are often ignored.

Cunning. Ambitious. Resourcefulness. Determination. Power. Cleverness.

These are the traits that Slytherins pride themselves on. Slytherins are cunning, are power-hungry, we won't deny that. But those things aren't always bad.

Remember: Regulus Black, a boy who defied his family, defied his master, simply to protect his house-elf. Remember: Andromeda Tonks, who defied her family for a muggle-born boy with a yellow scarf. Remember: Horace Slughorn, who fought for what was right, despite being pureblood, despite how easily he could have remained silent. Remember: Narcissa Malfoy, who defied the darkest wizard of all time, because she would have done _anything_ to protect her son.

Slytherins love deeply. They will do anything, hurt anyone, if it means protecting those they love. Do not forget this.

* * *

So- Harry Potter, a Slytherin.

The dungeons are cold, and Blaise Zabini complains almost constantly, shivering under his blankets at night. Draco Malfoy writes home to his parents the first morning, and the next day his owl brings back a heated blanket, and some sweets. Draco is still awful, at this age. This would be the same in any world, in any dimension. Draco was raised by two parents who spoiled him beyond belief. But, he was also raised with one uncle and one aunt in jail for murder. He was also raised with one aunt, and a cousin that looked at Draco and his family with pity in their eyes (after these chance meetings, in Diagon Alley, at the Ministry, Draco would find his mother pouring Fire Whisky into her tea, would find her looking in a book about the Black family history. Draco was a Malfoy, yes, but he's also half Black. Remember this). Draco was raised with beliefs, ideas, and morals, like any other child. We can accept this. We can forgive him for taking the time he needs to change this. Children are _children_ for a reason. We do not blame them for their parents' mistakes.

In the first few weeks, Harry does not make friends. There is not a red haired boy in hand-me-down robes to introduce him to his entire family, to take him in as one of their own. There isn't a bushy haired girl looking over his class assignments, correcting him when he waved his wand wrong (not yet, anyway). In this world, Harry is as alone as he was back with the Dursleys. In this world, he spends his days sitting in the back of his classes, working harder than ever, working to prove himself. On his first day of classes, in Herbology with the Hufflepuffs, he heard the whispers about Slytherins. He hears the whispers about _You-Know-Who_ and about Harry himself.

Draco doesn't whisper, and neither does Pansy Parkinson. They yell, and scream, and taunt, and Harry falls asleep, blankets pulled tight around his chest, pillow held over his ears, to hisses of _orphan, unloved, mudblood_.

In this world, Draco still taunts Neville. He steals the Rememberall, and Goyle and Pansy laugh when Neville lands with a broken wrist.

Harry Potter does not. Harry, with green on his tie and green in his eyes ( _so much like his mothers,_ everyone says, but now they stare for longer at the green wrapped around his neck, the green sown into his robes) recognizes bullying when he sees it. This Harry is in a position where he can _do_ something about it. He is no longer the small, skinny boy, scared of Dudley's bigger fists. This is the _Wizarding_ world. They solve their problems with wands, with intelligence, with _power_. They fight with strength, sure- but it's a different kind of strength, it's one that Harry _has_.

He catches the Rememberall before it shatters. Draco sneers at him, and Ron Weasley's mouth drops in shock when he lands back on the ground. Professor McGonagall still catches him, but instead of taking him to Oliver Wood, she marches him to Snape's office.

This Harry is still looked at in disdain. This Harry still felt pain in his scar on that first dinner, when Snape glared at him. Snape gives him detention for ignoring a professors explicit instructions, even as McGonagall shakes her head at the loss. Snape never hated the colour of Harry's robes, never loved the colour of his eyes enough. When Snape looked at Harry, all he saw was James. Green robes do not change this.

In this world, Crabbe and Goyle shoot curses (harmless, but still annoying, still embarrassing) at Harry when he's showering, eating, sleeping. Harry spends the next two weeks learning how to put protective spells up around his bed at night. Millicent Bulstrode, quietly, with a scowl on her face, teaches him simple defensive spells, late at night when no one is around to see them huddled up by the fire, studying a third year's DADA text book.

Blaise Zabini catches him asleep on a book in the common room one night, the bags underneath his eyes so dark they're visible even over Harry's dark skin. Blaise, more advanced in Defence Against The Dark Arts than Harry (despite not having defeated The Dark Lord at aged 1) jots down a few notes for Harry about wand technique, and throws a blanket with the heating charm attached (he'd badgered a fifth year girl into teaching him the spell, sick of waking up freezing) over him as he sleeps.

Harry masters the spell the next day, and Blaise wakes with the History of Magic homework he's been putting off for days finished- in neat, careful handwriting, so unlike his own. The boys sit together at breakfast that day, and no words are exchanged, but Harry slept through the entire night, and Blaise copies Harry's notes in History of Magic (Harry, subtly pushing the paper over, careful to write larger, and neater so the writing is legible), and everything feels a little bit better, a little bit warmer.

* * *

Slytherins are loyal, perhaps more so than Gryffindors. Perhaps just in different ways. Slytherins look out for their own, and their friendships are for life. Slytherins will fight tooth and nail for their friends, don't even try to tell me any differently. Slytherins are loyal, are proud, are protective, to the point where people call them dangerous, scary. Slytherins bond for life. They take betrayal _so_ much more seriously than anyone else. Slytherins would rather die than betray a friend- I don't care what the Hat says, about Slytherins being ambitious. Selfish is not another word for ambitious. Do not confuse the two.

* * *

On Halloween, when Harry hears of a girl crying in the bathroom, unaware of the danger awaiting her, he doesn't even pause before running after her. Harry was never brave because of his House. It was never the red and gold on his robes that made him stand up for what was right, that made him protect those that needed it. It's the boy who makes the house, not the other way around.

Blaise pauses though, behind Harry, eyes rolling up to the ceiling as he swears under his breath and runs after him. He gets there just as Harry's throwing something at it- Blaise spares a glance at the destroyed toilets- yelling for Hermione Granger- and of _course_ it's a bloody Gryffindor, honestly- to move.

Harry Potter- who was ostracized for the colour of his skin in the Muggle world, and who is ridiculed for his blood here, saves Hermione Granger in that bathroom. But so does Blaise Zabini, a boy with darker skin than Harry's, and purer blood. The troll ends up knocked out by his own club- Hermione yelling instructions at Blaise from where she's hiding underneath a sink- and a wand stuck in his ear, and afterwards, Blaise wrinkles his nose and demands that Harry cleans it for him. Harry does, curled up in the library the next night, Hermione on his left, writing frantically on a piece of parchment, Blaise on his right, lazily reading about unicorns.

There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll will _always_ be one of them.

* * *

Harry picks up friends the way he picks up spells- with a lot of determination, but mostly just a lot of luck.

After Hermione comes Fred and George Weasley, who laugh themselves silly when Harry joins Hermione at the Gryffindor table for lunch the day of the Slytherin vs. Gryffindor match. Harry earnestly wishes the twins luck, eyeing their uniforms jealously, and Fred and George laugh for five more minutes before they give Harry the rest of their juice. In this version, Harry still receives a Weasley sweater at Christmas; emerald green with a silver _H_ in the middle. In this version, Percy writers to Molly to express his concern over the twins befriending first year Harry Potter, the boy who defeated the darkest wizard alive, and then was put in his house, the house of evil. _The boy_ , Percy writes, _who may be following in his footsteps_.

Fred and George Weasley are a lot of things, and aren't a lot of other things. But one of the most important things they are is: trustworthy.

They are not brave like Bill and Charlie, with their thirst for knowledge, with their hot-headed tendencies. They are not smart like Percy, with his rules and regulations. They are smart like _them_ , but most importantly, maybe, they are smart like Gideon and Fabian, and Molly's love for her brothers is only surpassed by her love for her children.

So Molly knits the sweater, and makes some extra fudge late on Christmas Eve, and Harry wakes up (alone, in his dorm, all the other boys back with their families) to a new sweater and some chocolate, from _the Weasleys_ , a book of simple defense spells from Blaise, a book of famous Slytherins from Hermione ( _famous for doing good things, not for being psychopathic murderers,_ she writes), a book of code crackers from Millicent (no name is attached, but the wrapping is covered with cat fur, and Harry may not be in Ravenclaw, but he's not an idiot) and a roughly cut flute from Hagrid (with a demand that he visits him for lunch sometime soon).

In this version, Harry, the only first year Slytherin left at Hogwarts over Christmas, sits with the Weasleys for lunch. Percy eyes him disapprovingly, and Ron looks on wearily as the twins joke around with Harry. Harry contributes brilliantly to a prank the twins are planning, and Ron warms up to him, after that. Percy storms down to sit with the Prefects, muttering angrily about nobody respecting the rules.

When Harry gets back to his room that night, stuffed to the brim with turkey sandwiches and Christmas cake, there's a parcel on his bed. In this world, Dumbledore paused when seeing the green on Harry's robes. In this world, the similarities between Tom Riddle and Harry Potter were astounding. Dumbledore watched curiously as Harry shot jinx after jinx at Grabbe and Goyle (missing, apparently, that this was only when they were bullying Hufflepuffs half their size), after he deflected every hex Pansy flicked at him. Dumbledore worried, worried that he was all too Slytherin.

Harry sitting and joking with the Weasley twins reminded him of James Potter and the other Marauders, and it was this that convinced him Harry could be trusted with the cloak. Not the way Harry protected Millicent Bulstrode from Draco's teasing, not the way he stayed up late studying every night, his thirst to be the best overshadowing his need for sleep. Not the way he carried himself, so much like his mother. Dumbledore was convinced to trust him based on his likeness to his father. Severus Snape was convinced of the opposite, but for the same reasons. This is the same in any world.

Harry still spends Christmas night with his family in this world, curled up under the always warm blanket from Blaise. He figures out pretty quickly what the mirror does, even before Dumbledore finds him there.

"Do you know what this mirror shows, Harry?" Dumbledore asks, and Harry bites his lip, and looks over his shoulder. His mum is smiling encouragingly at him, and his dad is laughing, a bit.

"What our hearts desire," Harry guesses, and Dumbledore looks pleasantly surprised. "It's backwards writing," Harry shrugs, when asked how he came to that conclusion. "Millicent gave me a book of codes today, I read it before lunch."

There's a twinkle in Dumbledore's eye when he nods. "Ah- of course."

In this world, Harry doesn't ask what the Headmaster sees when he looks in the mirror. Harry has grown up knowing not to ask questions, and in another world, maybe, his friends might have encouraged it, and the other students in Gryffindor house may have ensured that there was a safe space for him to question things. In this world, Harry is only just learning not to be alone.

* * *

Harry's with Fred and George when he finds Fluffy up on the third corridor this time. They aren't sneaking out for a battle against Draco this time, but to charm all the silverware in the Great Hall to dance whenever student's tried to use it. Harry is fascinated with the Map, and the twins are amazed by his invisibility cloak, and Fred gleefully wonders aloud about how to convince his parents to adopt Harry, who beams at this.

They manage to charm all the silverware on the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables before Harry spots Mrs. Norris lurking in the doorway, who runs off, positively howling. George groans, full of regret that they didn't manage to get to the Slytherin table (Harry's secretly glad about this; he doesn't need another detention from Snape, who always seems to know exactly when Harry's been involved in something bad) and they run off, ending up on the third floor. It's George that mutters _Alohomora_ , and Harry that notices the trapdoor. Fred shoves both boys out the door before he makes his own escape, and Harry has a momentary pang of regret of not being in Gryffindor with people that would apparently risk their lives for him.

Later, Millicent takes a curse right in the chest after a sixth year got sick of Harry bringing Hermione back to study in their common room, and Blaise helps Harry carry her up to Madam Pompfrey after he manages to convince third year Terence Higgs to stun Millicent's' attacker, and Harry thanks his lucky stars that he listened to that Hat after all.

* * *

With Blaise's lazy interrogations of Hagrid, and Hermione's fervent research, they figure out quickly what Fluffy is guarding. Harry's broom isn't jinxed here, because he doesn't own one, so the trio don't have strong suspicions against any of the professors- though, Harry is _always_ weary when it comes to Professor Snape. He's just better at hiding it here- so when they sneak up to the third floor that night, they've no idea what they're up against,

Millicent tags along, following meters behind the others, and it isn't until another body lands on the Devil's Snare that they even realise she's there. "This is _dangerous_ ," Harry snaps, angry, and scared; proud and furious. "Don't you guys get that?"

Blaise rolls his eyes and Hermione groans and Millicent punches Harry's arm. "And we're your _friends_ , don't _you_ get _that_?"

Harry stares at her, even as she yells at Hermione to _light your own fire, honestly Granger,_ even as Blaise catches the key and then explains he plays Quidditch every summer with his cousins, blushing as Hermione beams at him, even as Hermione sacrifices herself in the game of chess, muttering to herself about strategies she's read about before, about late night games in the Gryffindor common room with Fred and George's younger brother. Blaise offers to stay behind with her, gently placing his bunched up robes under her head, blushing as he mumbles something about not being in Gryffindor for a reason.

"Bravery is overrated," Harry says, firmly. "Friendship is more important. Staying _safe_ is more important. Look after her, okay? We'll be back soon."

Millicent watches as Harry opens the door to the next chamber, and then turns back to Blaise. "He _says_ that, but he's gonna probably do something brave, and stupid anyway," she grumbles, and Blaise grins.

"Aren't they the same thing, really?" he teases, and Millicent barks out a laugh. "I'll try and wake Hermione up, and then we'll go get help. I can fly the brooms out of here, and we'll get a teacher. Look after him, okay?" He repeats Harry's phrase before, and Millicent nods. "And yourself, Millicent. Be careful."

Millicent scoffs at this, and follows after Harry, who's staring silently at the knocked out troll. "That was quick," she says, causing Harry to jump.

He scowls. "I didn't do it, it was already like this. Which means we haven't got long- whoever's after the stone must be getting close."

In the next room, they puzzle it out together, Harry wrinkling his nose when he realises Snape must have set this trap. Harry uses the leg locking charm on Millicent as he downs the right potion and slips through the black flames, even as she yells after him. He finds Quirrell inside the room, and is only mildly shocked when he spots the Mirror of Erised behind him.

As a Slytherin, Harry has grown much more cunning in the last year. When he lies to Voldemort, it's only a partial lie. "It's- my mum, and dad. They're hugging me. I look just like my dad, except- well, I have my mother's eyes," he whispers, and it takes Voldemort minutes to determine that he's lying, but by the time he does, Quirrell burns when he tries to touch Harry, and as Harry's eyes flutter shut, he see's white floating above his head.

* * *

When he wakes in the hospital wing, it's to far less sweets on his bedside table, but his friends are there, and that's all that matters, really. Hermione and Millicent are sitting cross legged on the bed next to him, working on a Transfiguration assignment, and Blaise has managed to squish himself into Harry's bed, and is fast asleep. The Weasley twins are sitting on chairs next to his bed, and make him swear to bring them along next time he decides to do something extremely fun and life threatening, and Ron even pops in for a visit, dumping a chocolate frog on his bed before he disappears, blushing.

Hagrid comes to visit, after being released from Azkaban, and wails over Harry for almost thirty minutes, before presenting him with a photo album filled with photos of his parents; Blaise sneaks back to the Hospital Wing that night, and let's Harry cry in his arms for awhile; McGonagall catches them in the morning, and escorts Blaise back to Slytherins common room, after praising Harry for choosing such wonderful friends.

Harry's first year ends with his House winning the House Cup, which would mean a lot more to him if more than three members from his House were actually _speaking_ to him, but on the train ride back to Platform 9 and ¾, Blaise falls asleep on Harry's shoulder, and over the Weasley's loud Quidditch discussions, Hermione promises to ring him at least once a week. Millicent hugs Harry tightly before she leaves with her parents, glaring at Dudley all the way, and Harry sleeps well that night, content with his life for the first time in his memory.

* * *

Second year begins with Dobby and no letters, and Harry spends a total of three days locked in his room before he's gleefully rescued by Fred and George, with their little sister sitting in the back seat next to Harry, face as red as her hair.

"You didn't answer any of our letters," Fred explains, once Harry's settled in for the long drive, Hedwig flying behind them. "And we wrote Hermione, and your other friend-"

"Blaise," George pipes up, studying a map.

"Right, him," Fred nods. "And they hadn't heard from you either, so we stole the car, and then Ginny caught us, and blackmailed us into coming along to help save you, and here we are."

"You guys are the best," Harry declares, turning to Ginny, a wide grin on his face. "Nice to meet you, I'm Harry," he introduces, and Ginny smiles softly, the blush on her cheeks deepening.

"Ginny," she returns.

"You're starting Hogwarts this year, right?" She nods, and Harry grins at her. "You'll be a Gryffindor then, like the rest of this lot?" He questions, nodding his head at the front seat.

"Nah, not Ginny," George answers. "She's right smart, she'll go to Ravenclaw, mark my words."

"I don't know," Fred muses. "Percy's even smarter, and he got Gryffindor, somehow."

Ginny scoffs, and rolls her eyes. "Percy's a twat. I'm still certain he tricked the hat, somehow." She eyes Harry curiously, when he laughs. "How did _you_ get Slytherin then? You're proper brave, from what these two have told me."

George laughs. "Harry's devious," he answers. "A proper prankster."

"Worse than we were at eleven, that's for sure," Fred agrees, and Harry beams with pride.

"I try," he replies, smiling at Ginny. "But- honestly, I asked for Slytherin. And I've made some good friends there, so I think it was a good choice," he shrugs, and Ginny ponders this. She's silent for the rest of the drive home, occasionally peeking a glance at Harry, who dozes softly as the twins quietly make plans to ensure their mum doesn't catch them.

(She does, of course. She yells at the twins and Ginny for almost an hour, screaming about how she raised them better than this, and Harry awkwardly stands in the background before Ginny yells back. _You did raise us good mum, you raised us to help our friends, to stop people from bullying. So that's what we did._ Molly blushes, for a bit, and then piles extra bacon on Harry's plate, and sends them all up for a nap before lunch. Fred gives up his bed, and naps in a pull out camp bed, and Harry falls asleep smiling for the first time since he left Hogwarts.)

* * *

When the platform refuses him entry, he's with Ginny this time, loudly discussing Quidditch as they trail behind Ginny's parents and Ron, who still eyes Harry with caution in his eyes. They clasp hands and head back to the car, waiting for Mrs. and Mr. Weasley to come back. They arrive at Hogwarts late, Apparated in by Mr. Weasley, but Hagrid meets them and they don't lose any points, so Harry counts it as a win.

"Good luck," Harry whispers, waving goodbye as he leaves Ginny with the other first years, slipping silently into his seat at the Slytherin table, in between Blaise and Millicent, who frown, when Harry explains all about Dobby and the platform.

"Smells like Malfoy, if you ask me," Millicent says, glaring at the boy in question.

Blaise shakes his head though. "Nah. He's not that smart, honestly."

Harry grins, and then the sorting begins. Colin Creevy, a little blonde boy, camera hanging around his neck, becomes the first Gryffindor, and Harry catches Hermione's eye, and waves happily to her. The Hat sits on Ginny's head for almost three minutes, and Harry can only see half her face from underneath it, but she's frowning, and appears to be arguing. Finally, the Hat almost sighs, and resignedly yells _Slytherin,_ causing the Great Hall to quieten immediately. Ginny hops off the chair, and skips over to the Slytherin table amidst the hushed applause, squeezing in next to another first year girl, across from Harry. Harry stares at her for a few minutes, and when the Sorting finishes, and the food appears, she sighs.

"I can feel my brothers staring at me from all the way over here," she sighs. "I don't need it from you too, please."

Blaise grins, and offers her a hand to shake. "Blaise Zabini," he says, and she grins, taking a sip of Pumpkin Juice. "Nice to meet you."

"Ginny Weasley," she returns. "And back at you. I've heard about you, from Harry of course. We should play some Quidditch together, sometime. Harry and I played a bit over the summer, and he's surprisingly good as well, considering he's only been on a broom a handful of times before."

"It's his dad," Blaise says, snapping Harry out of his own thoughts.

"What's my dad?" he questions, brow furrowing.

Blaise raises his own eyebrow. "Didn't you know? Your dad was a Chaser, back when he was here. Pretty good, according to my cousin." Harry blinks for a moment, and then a smile spreads across his face when Blaise squeezes his hand. "Like Hermione told you last year, Harry. Dead doesn't mean gone."

Harry's smile falters as Ginny grins at him, squashed between two other kids in green, and he finally makes eye contact with the twins, three tables away. They're grinning, even as Percy frowns disapprovingly. "I don't think a Weasley has ever been in Slytherin before," he eventually says, smiling softly at Ginny, who just rolls her eyes.

"I'm all about breaking traditions," she smirks, and Millicent snorts next to Harry.

"Why do you insist on making friends with Gryffindors?" She sighs, digging into dinner.

Ginny scoffs. "Maybe you didn't hear the hat, _Millie,_ but I'm as Slytherin as you are, apparently." Millicent turns a bright red, and Harry sighs.

"I thought I told you that she wasn't to be called that," he scolds, and Ginny grins.

"I'm related to Fred and George, Harry, honestly. You tell us to do one thing, and we immediately do the other. You should know that by now," she retorts, and Harry sighs. He's in for a _long_ year, apparently.

* * *

The Slytherin's quickly learn that it's not worth messing with Ginny, not with Harry shadowing her, and yelling at anyone who dares even _look_ at her too long, not with Blaise sabotaging anyone's homework if they're mean to her. Draco Malfoy makes the mistake of teasing her about her hair colour once, and Ginny calmly smiles at him and promises he'll regret it. He spends the next week with bright red hair and freckles, after Harry sneaks Fred and George into the Slytherin dorms, and none of the teachers are able to reverse it until it fades away on its own (Harry suspects that McGonnagall would be able to, but McGonnagall watches over him, Blaise and Ginny when they practice Quidditch on the weekends, with Fred and George's brooms, passing a Quaffle back and forth, muttering to herself all the while about what an absolute _waste_ their talent was, if they couldn't put it to good use. When Draco makes the Quidditch team as the Seeker, even though Harry clearly out-flew him at the trials, even on the borrowed school broom, McGonnagall docks five points from him in Transfiguration for 'boasting incessantly,' and invites Harry and Ginny to tea, later making it a standing Thursday night date).

* * *

Two months into the school year, and Ginny starts looking more and more worried, dark circles under her eyes, and shaking hands. Harry calls for a group huddle, and Millicent sits on Ginny so she can't run away.

"I've been losing hours out of the day," she eventually admits, scowling at them all. Her lip quivers though, and Harry squeezes her hand, tight. The three of them make plans to help Ginny keep count of her hours; Millicent sneaks Ginny up into her dorm every night, and loses out on her own sleep to make sure Ginny's getting some, and Harry meets her after every class of hers, and walks her to her next one, even though he loses points for being late. One night, when all three second years are in a late night Astronomy class, Mrs. Norris gets petrified, and Ginny has red paint all over her robes.

She cries once she realises what she's done, and Hermione badgers Fred and George into helping them sneak down into the kitchen; the elves make them hot chocolate, and Ginny's tears slowly dry. Lockhart catches them sneaking back to the Slytherin dorm to drop Ginny off, but Fred and George quickly convince him that they were out for some late night practice of DADA, because they wanted to impress him. Lockhart gives Gryffindor 15 points, and Ginny 5, and Hermione frowns when all three of the Weasleys laugh at him.

* * *

In Harry's next History of Magic class, Hermione badgers Professor Binns until he gives in, and tells them the legend of the Chamber of Secrets. Blaise quietly relates this back to Ginny at lunch, who shivers almost non-stop.

"I _can't_ be the heir of Slytherin," she whispers, and Blaise links their hands together. "I mean- I'm a _Weasley_ for goodness sake, there's no way we're related to Salazar Slytherin."

Harry raises his eyebrows at Millicent, who shrugs. "Pure-blood families are all so mixed up, it's a possibility," she says gently, and Ginny lets out a quiet sob. "And, I mean, you _are_ in Slytherin, so.

"Only because I _asked_ ," Ginny wails, and Blaise looks momentarily terrified. "I just wanted to be here because Harry said there were good friends here, and that everyone's so loyal, I didn't want _this_."

Harry wraps his arms around her, and frowns at Millicent, who sighs. "It's okay, we'll fix this, I promise," he murmurs. The news about Colin being attacked reaches their ears a few weeks later, and Ginny stops going to classes for a few days, and dozes in front of the fire in the Gryffindor Tower; the students eye her wearily, but Fred and George vouch for her, so everyone leaves her alone.

* * *

They discover that Harry's a Parseltongue at the Duelling Club, and after he discovers Nearly Headless Nick and Justin Finch-Fletchley, Harry avoids all of his friends until Blaise corners him in their dorm room.

"So you can speak to snakes, so what?" he says. "You obviously _didn't_ attack anybody; you've been with us most of the time, and I know you're good at Defence and all, but you're not really that great at hexing people." Harry spends that night in Blaise's bed, curled up in his arms as Blaise gently snores, and things feel a bit better.

Until Hermione gets petrified.

They're visiting Hagrid when he's arrested, Blaise, Millicent and Harry. They follow the spiders that very night, and just narrowly escape them, Millicent using that same fire spell Hermione taught them all last year, and Blaise scoffs when they get back.

"Well it's obviously _not_ Hagrid then, is it? You can speak to snakes, not spiders. And clearly those- things- don't go into the castle, so they're obviously not the Slytherin monster."

"But they know what _is_ ," Harry points out, and Millicent shrugs.

"They aren't going to tell us, so it doesn't matter, regardless," she reminds him, and Harry nods, slowly. When they get back to the Common Room, Ginny's asleep by the fire, a frown etched into her cheeks. Millicent picks up her open diary, and frowns. "She writes in this thing almost constantly," she says, at Harry's confused look. "But- it's empty, completely."

"Maybe its invisible ink," Harry suggests. Blaise grabs the book out of Millicent's hands, and mutters a few spells, frowning when nothing appears.

"No, it's- there's nothing there," he says, and Millicent's frown deepens. She pulls a quill out from her bag, and writes her name on a page of the diary, and they all watch in awe as it vanishes instantly. _Hello, Millicent. My name is Tom Riddle_ , appears a second later, and all three of them look at each other, confusion evident in their eyes.

Harry snatches the book from Millicent's hands, and writes back. Later, when they tumble out of the diary, there's an angry glint in Blaise's eye. "He's lying," he says, and Millicent nods earnestly. "He- we know Hagrid didn't do it, we know it wasn't the spiders."

They spend the next few days huddled up in the library, after Harry tasks Fred and George with the job of watching over Ginny- they take it too literally, and follow her everywhere she goes, missing out on their own classes and getting screamed at by the ghost in the girls toilets, down on the first floor, when they follow Ginny in there.

"It's a Basilisk," Blaise states, dropping down on the couch in the common room. "I've just been to visit Hermione, look," he says, showing Harry and Millicent the paper.

"That's why you can hear it," Millicent says, shocked. "It's a giant ass snake, oh my god." Her eyes scan the paper quickly, and she gasps. " _Pipes_ , oh Merlin, that's how it's been getting around."

"We've got to tell someone," Blaise says, and Harry frowns. "Snape, Dumbledore- someone's got to do something."

Harry shakes his head. "No. We'll tell McGonnagall. Snape- he wouldn't believe us. Probably we'd get detention."

Millicent nods. "We should wait until morning," she says, and Harry frowns. "We shouldn't be walking the castle at night- for all we know, the Basilisk is still out there somewhere. Getting petrified won't help anyone." The boys nod in agreement, and get comfortable on the couches, Blaise curling up underneath Harry's arms.

Harry wakes up to Millicent shaking his shoulders forcibly, and notices instantly that Ginny's vanished. After exchanging horrified glances, and a quick search for the diary- gone too- they head off to find McGonnagall, and instead find the words written on the wall- the words that make Blaise stumble, and clutch Harry's shoulders.

"It's Ginny," Millicent whispers, as Harry stares open-mouthed at the red writing. "Oh my god, we fell asleep; this is our fault!"

Harry bites his lip, and decides that finding the teachers isn't worth it. "We've got to do this on our own," he states, and Blaise pales, but nods anyway; Millicent's frown sets, and they follow Harry to the Gryffindor tower.

When a third year boy opens the portrait, frowning as these three kids in green, Harry begs and pleads; Blaise threatens and Millicent yells- Fred and George appear a few minutes later, looking confused.

"You told me if I was going to do anything stupid that I better come get you," Harry says, after Millicent explains about the diary. "And I think this qualifies."

Fred and George grin at each other, but Harry can see the desperation in their eyes when they realise that it's Ginny that's missing. "Well if you had to pick someone to help you break into an undiscovered part of the school-"

"I'm glad it's us," Fred finishes, as George ducks back into the Gryffindor common room. "We've just gotta collect some essentials if we're to help you," he explains, when Harry watches George leave.

George comes back with their map, and his pockets are bulging. "Fireworks, and other things we won't mention right now, that could help distract the snake if we need," Fred explains, and Harry nods.

"The only issue is, we have no idea where the snake is," Harry says, frowning. Fred and George shrug, and George mutters something, tapping his wand to the map.

"She's not on here anywhere, but she _has_ been spending an awful lot of time in the bathroom on the first floor," Fred says, scanning the parchment over George's shoulder. "We noticed on this-" he catches Blaise and Millicent looking at the map in amazement, and winks, "-we'll explain later, but let's try Moaning Myrtle's bathroom first; she's got to know something."

She does, as it turns out. Harry hisses at the sink when they figure it out, and George jumps down the hole first, Fred trying to keep Harry and his friends from following- _she's our sister, and you guys are too young, let us handle this,_ he says, even as George yells that it's okay for them to come down now. _Ginny might not be our sister, but we've been responsible for her since the Hat put her in our house_ , Blaise snaps back, and Harry nods determinedly. _And maybe I am the heir of Slytherin, anyway,_ he points out; Fred sighs, and lets them go down next, Millicent smirking at him all the while.

They find Tom Riddle, handsome and scary at the end of the tunnel. Millicent scoffs, and Blaise trembles, but Harry screams and yells and tells him that he's pathetic, and weak. _You don't even have a body, I've seen you, you're less than even a ghost,_ he yells. It's Fred who pledges his loyalty to Hogwarts and Dumbledore, Fred who pulls the sword out of the hat, looking gleeful as he does it, but George who stabs the giant snake, killing it. When she wakes, Ginny yanks a fang out of the Basilisk's mouth, and stabs the diary, repeatedly, watching Tom Riddle disappear with a slight smirk on her face; the twins stare wide-eyed at her, and promise never to mess with her again- _not sure we could, to be quite honest_ , George says, grinning. _You're way too scary for us, little sis,_ Fred agrees. Millicent gathers up some of the fangs, because _you never know when you might need some poison_ , she says, sounding hilariously like Hermione. _And maybe Hermione would like a souvenir,_ Blaise teases, and Millicent laughs.

Fawkes carries them all back to the bathroom, after dropping some tears on their minor wounds; _wicked cool, we need a bird like this,_ Fred jokes. Fawkes preens, and rubs his head gently against George's hand. Molly and Arthur yell at Fred and George, and cry over Ginny. They thank Harry profusely and invite him around for the summer, awkwardly patting Millicent and Blaise on their shoulders. McGonnagall looks pale when they tell the story, Blaise and Millicent stubbornly including any bits of Harry's brilliance and bravery that he forgets to repeat; Dumbledore looks at them over his glasses, as gives Slytherin 250 points, with an additional 100 for Gryffindor- _and another fifty, for Ms. Granger, for figuring this all out_ , he adds, when Millicent reminds him. Molly and Arthur accompany Ginny to the Hospital Wing, and McGonnagall escorts Fred and George back to Gryffindor tower- Snape appears towards the end of the meeting, and sneering, takes Millicent and Blaise back to the common room, as Dumbledore asks Harry to stay back a moment. He gently explains about Tom Riddle, and how he became Voldemort.

"How are you going to get rid of the diary, sir?" Harry asks, afterwards, frowning. "Ginny said she tried destroying it; flushing it down the toilet and what not. She even tried a burning spell that Hermione taught her."

"This is old magic, Harry," Dumbledore explains. "And as I am an old man, I think you'll find that I can think of many ways to get rid of this." The twinkle in his eye is gone, and Harry lies awake most of that night, listening to Blaise's soft snores as he thinks about Tom Riddle; _this was his first true home,_ Dumbledore had said. _I suspect he found nearly all of the secrets here; certainly more than I_.

Harry thinks of the room on the third floor that he and Blaise found once, that was sometimes there and sometimes not, that took up different shapes, depending on what they wanted (most often, a quiet place to study together, or a large green pitch, equipped with two brooms). He thinks of the secret passages Fred and George had shown him. He closes his eyes and tries not to think about the similarities between himself and Voldemort.

The Mandrakes revive everyone before the end of the year, and Ginny and Hermione cry when they reunite; Ginny blubbers about how it's all her fault, and she's so sorry, and Hermione tells her not to blame herself. Slytherin win the house cup for the second year in a row, thanks to Ginny, Millicent, Blaise and Harry; Gryffindor come in a close second, and George and Fred host a huge party in celebration; _it's the closest we've come in years, and good enough for us frankly_. On the train ride home, Ron joins their compartment, and blushing a bright red, thanks Harry and the other Slytherins for saving his little sister.

"Maybe Slytherin doesn't have to mean evil," he says, staring at his shoes. Harry buys him a chocolate frog, and then loses spectacularly to him in a game of wizarding chess.

* * *

Third year begins with a blown-up Aunt Marge, the Knight Bus, and the Minister for Magic. Harry owls Blaise to tell him all about it, and Blaise meets him in Diagon Alley the next day, and shudders a bit, when Harry mentions the large dog.

"Sounds like a Grim," he says, and Harry frowns. "And there's something you ought to know, about Sirius Black."

Blaise lets Harry cry on his shoulders for a while, after he explains that Black used to be James' best friend, before dragging him to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour and buying him a chocolate and raspberry ice cream. Afterwards, they go and drool over the newest broom, the Firebolt, and Blaise has to forcibly remove Harry from the store to stop him from emptying his bank account to buy it.

He spends that night alone in his room in the Leaky Cauldron, staring at his parents wedding photos; somehow, he'd never even thought about the three men standing next to James in his wedding photo. He recognises Black instantly, despite how his appearance has changed. Harry's rudely reminded of Blaise- they have the same smile, he thinks. He falls asleep telling himself that Blaise would never betray him like that, and the next morning he wonders if James died thinking that Black would never betray him either.

Harry spends the rest of his holidays puttering around Diagon Alley, meeting up with his friends when they're able to come down. It takes him awhile to get used to the stares he receives from shop owners, all eyeing him suspiciously when he wears green. Hermione brings her parents up one day, and they shop for their school books together, Hermione piling twice as many books as Harry's into her bag. The Weasley's come on the last day of the holidays, and spend the night at the Leaky Cauldron with Harry; Ginny sneaks into his room when everyone's asleep and they sit up for a few hours planning some pranks to play on Fred and George throughout the year.

* * *

When the Dementor comes into the compartment Harry's sharing with Blaise, Millicent, Ginny and Hermione, Harry hears his mum screaming. Afterwards, when he wakes, Professor Lupin feeds them all some chocolate, giving him and Ginny the largest pieces.

"I suspect they effected you two the worst because you've had more harrowing experiences than your friends," he says, when Ginny asks him. "Professor Dumbledore told me about your last two years, Harry, and explained what Voldemort did to you last year Ginny," he explains, and Ginny blushes even as she scowls.

"That was Tom," she says, nibbling on her chocolate. "There's a difference." Harry nods in agreement, and Lupin shrugs, eyeing Harry's green tie with confused eyes.

"Make sure you all finish the chocolate, or else Madam Pomfrey will be after me," he says, before excusing himself.

Harry sighs, swallowing the last of his chocolate. "I do wish people would stop giving me the _look_ when they realise I'm a Slytherin," he complains, and Ginny rolls her eyes.

"You think _you_ get it bad? Try being the first _ever_ Slytherin Weasley," she scoffs, through a mouthful of chocolate. "Percy's keeping an uncomfortably close eye on me after all that diary business last year; seems to suspect I was doing it all under my own free will, and even Bill wrote to me, expressing his _concern_ about my choosing Slytherin."

Hermione sighs, and hands the rest of her chocolate to Ginny. "They're just narrow-minded idiots," she says, smiling gently. "Clearly Slytherin's aren't all evil, I mean, look at Sirius Black, he was a Gryffindor, wasn't he?"

Harry winces at this, and Blaise tightens his fingers around his. "People just like thinking they know where evil is," he explains, voice soft. "It's easier for them, I guess."

Hermione looks politely amazed at these words, before nodding her head. "Exactly," she agrees.

* * *

In Divination, Professor Trelawany predicts Harry's death, and Blaise storms out of class. "He's not going to die, and clearly you're an idiot if you think so," he says, before throwing his textbook on the floor and crawling back down the ladder; Hermione looks vaguely impressed, but mostly just astonished that a student would dare speak to a teacher like that (when she walks out of the class, a few weeks later, Blaise would smirk at her, and call her a copy-cat, much to her annoyance).

McGonnagall set's them all straight in their next lesson, and Harry feels slightly better. "Then again," he says to Ginny, at lunch. "Someone's tried to kill me the last two years, so I better keep watch anyway." Ginny snorts into her pumpkin juice.

Hagrid's first lesson goes a lot worse, and Draco ends up in the Hospital Wing, while Hagrid fears for his job. "He's _such_ a drama queen," Blaise fumes, at dinner. "I will actually _kill_ him if he gets Hagrid fired because he was too _stupid_ to listen to his clear instructions."

* * *

Snape pairs up Pansy and Harry in Potions for their first lesson, after he assigns a fuming Blaise to help Draco cut up in ingredients, and after the potion goes horribly wrong (Harry suspects Crabbe and Goyle slipped something in it), they end up in detention together, sorting out potion ingredients for Snape. Harry learns three important new things during this detention: when handling Flobberworm Mucus, one should always wear gloves, or else risk burning their skin, Newt Eyes are extremely sensitive, and should be handled very carefully, or risk breaking them (and consequently, earning another detention once Snape finds out), and Pansy isn't actually all that awful when separated from Draco and Daphne Greengrass (who isn't all that bad either, according to Blaise, though her little sister is much nicer, apparently).

"We should be friends," Harry says, after Snape sneers at them and tells them to get back to the common room before curfew, unless they wanted another detention. "You're not as awful as I thought. And you're smart, obviously. Too smart to hang around Malfoy and his cronies."

Pansy scoffs, but sits with him at breakfast the next day anyway.

* * *

Pansy's all sharp edges and sarcasm, and it takes everyone but Harry awhile to get used to her dry humour. Ginny warms up to her on a Thursday, when Pansy silently hands her the last bowl of soup at lunch, and Blaise grins when she starts laughing at their jokes about Draco (Harry thinks he's the only one who notices how her eyes are sad, when she looks over at Draco).

"I always knew you'd see the light," he tells her, one night in the common room, even as Draco stares at their group with a confused frown on his face.

Pansy raises an eyebrow. "Oh, did you?"

"You're too smart for them," he shrugs, nodding in Draco's direction. Pansy frowns, but nods in agreement anyway.

After Pansy owls her older brother for his old Arithmancy notes and slips them in Hermione's bag when she's not looking, Hermione starts joining them at lunch times, happily ignoring all the taunts and glares she gets. She and Pansy argue lightly over the benefits of Divination, and Hermione lends her History of Magic notes to Pansy, who always joins Blaise and Harry in sleeping through the class.

Millicent takes the longest to get used to Pansy being a part of their group, but one day Crabbe and Goyle make fun of her for being overweight, and Pansy shoots a hex at them before Millicent even blinks; they spend two days in the Hospital Wing with boils all over their bodies, and Millicent leaves a box of Chocolate Frogs on Pansy's bed as a thanks.

Fred and George love Pansy instantly though, and Harry wonders if he should just always bring a potential friend to the twins; they seem to be the best judges of character. Pansy helps them sneak into the Ravenclaw common room one night (they've never managed to answer the questions from the door, which causes Pansy to roll her eyes; _I knew Gryffindor's weren't all that smart, but come on guys, it's simple logic_ ) and charm everything bright yellow; Flitwick gives two Hufflepuffs caught out of their dorms past curfew detention for a week, but McGonnagall sends Harry and his group suspicious looks every transfiguration lesson. Pansy smiles angelically at her, and Blaise yawns, and Harry avoids eye contact with her. Fred and George lose Gryffindor 30 points in one Transfiguration lesson, and George cheerfully tells Pansy that he thinks McGonnagall suspects them.

* * *

The next week, Blaise and Pansy drag Harry to Quidditch trials, where Harry absolutely outflies Draco, even on one of the school's rickety brooms. The new captain, a sixth year boy named Bletchley, makes Harry seeker, on the sole condition that _you buy yourself a decent broom Potter, honestly_.

Harry's gleeful for the rest of the day, but at night, he strengthens the shields around his bed, in case Draco decides to retaliate, but luckily Draco's too embarrassed to do much of anything, other than hide out behind his curtains all day.

* * *

Harry doesn't even bother trying to get Snape to let him into Hogsemede, and instead waves goodbye to Blaise and Pansy, and spends the day with Ginny instead. They spend some time up in the owlry with Hedwig, and Harry sends her off to buy him a new Nimbus 2000 (after Ginny almost breaks his finger for attempting to buy a Firebolt).

"What now?" Harry asks, watching Hedwig fly off. Ginny blushes, a bit, when he turns to smile at him.

"Um, well, actually, I forgot that you couldn't go to Hogsmede, and all. So I made plans with my friend Luna, from Ravenclaw. You can tag along, if you'd like, but we're mostly doing homework, so," she shrugs, and Harry shakes his head.

"I've done enough homework this week, thanks," he laughs, and Ginny grins as he walks her to the library. Lupin finds him in the kitchens later, eating a sandwich the elves made for him.

"I do believe students are not meant to be in here," he says, thanking an elf for his own sandwich.

Harry shrugs. "I'm not that fond of rules," he grins, and Lupin sighs.

"You're a lot like your mother, did you know that?" he asks, and Harry feels his heart drop into his stomach.

"You knew her?" he asks, and Lupin nods, sipping his tea.

"We were in the same year, when we were students. Both Gryffindors," he explains. "She tutored me in Potions quite often; she was very talented."

Harry smiles softly. "I'm rubbish at Potions," he admits, and Lupin laughs.

"That's your dads fault," he says. "He was brilliant at Transfiguration, and almost everything, but Potions- well, he was borderline dangerous in that class, let me tell you," he looks over his shoulder, and lowers his voice. "And that was _without_ Professor Snape breathing down his neck all the time."

Harry giggles, and then forces his face into something more passive, unsure if he was supposed to laugh at another teacher. "If you knew my parents, that must mean you knew Sirius Black, right Professor Lupin? Blaise's cousin told him that my dad and Sirius were best friends, them and Peter Pettigrew, right?"

Lupin frowns, and takes a long sip of his tea. "We four shared a dorm for seven years," he says, curtly. "But I don't think I ever really knew him," he sighs, and he looks impossibly old.

Harry reaches over and pats his scarred hand gently. "Was my dad as good as everyone says? I mean, he's spoken about like a- a hero, I guess. Was he?"

Lupin pauses for a long moment. "He was a great person, Harry. He and your mother, both. They were both very talented, and very caring, and would be so unbelievably proud of the person you are." Harry feels his eyes mist up a bit, and blinks furiously. "But he was a boy, for the majority of the time I knew him. I want you to know that whatever you may hear about him, and Sirius and Peter, we were all children. Children who were thrust into war before we even knew what war meant."

Harry nods his head slowly. "Kind of like me, right?"

Lupin smiles softly. "Right, Harry."

* * *

Harry's in his dorm, reading, when everyone comes back from Hogsmede, and Blaise comes running in, breathless.

"I just walked Hermione to her common room, and their portrait was all cut up, and- oh Harry, Sirius Black tried to get in there! We've got to go to the Great Hall, the prefects are waiting in our common room to escort us there," he pants, and Harry's hand tightens around his wand.

They find Hermione almost immediately when they reach the Great Hall, and she fills them in.

"Apparently Black tried to get into Gryffindor Tower, and when the Fat Lady- that's our portrait- wouldn't let him, he got very angry and attacked her, and now nobody knows where he is, or even how he got in or out," she explains, cheeks flushed. Blaise bites his lip, looking confused.

"But Harry's in Slytherin, why didn't he go there?" He asks, and Harry stares down at the floor.

"He probably didn't know," Pansy offers. "I mean, your parents were both Gryffindors, and pretty much all of your dad's family were too- I'm guessing Black is a bit on the loony side, since he spent 12 years in Askaban, so."

Harry sleeps uneasily that night, Blaise on his left and Hermione on his right, and wonders how he's going to stop Sirius Black, because Merlin knows it'll come down to him and some other kids in the end.

* * *

The day before the Slytherin v. Gryffindor match, Snape subs for Lupin in DADA, and despite all protests, the class ends with him assigning the Third Years an essay to write on werewolves. Ginny, peering over Harry's shoulder as his writes his in the common room that night, helps proofread his, before gasping and disappearing for a few hours.

She comes back after dinner and corners Harry in his dorm. "I've just been to see Hermione, and the twins, and- I think Professor Lupin is a werewolf," she explains. Harry's first instinct is to laugh in her face, before he remembers that this is _Ginny Weasley_ , and that would probably be more dangerous than picking a fight with Voldemort himself.

"Why do you think that, exactly?" he asks instead, and Ginny explains her theories.

"He's always sick, and the other week, Hermione was in his office doing some extra credit work- which she doesn't even _need_ , but whatever- and Snape brought him a Potion to help with his illness, and he always has scratches all over his hands and face, and the twins said that they noticed him sneaking off grounds last week, on the Map, he just _vanished_ , and, I just have a _feeling_ ," she explains, and Harry blinks at her.

"Is that bad? I mean- I get that werewolves are dangerous and all, but it's not like he's teaching us during the full moon, so," he shrugs.

"I mean, we were raised on stories about werewolves being dangerous, but like, I doubt Lupin would hurt a fly, you know? And there's no _way_ Professor Dumbledore doesn't know, and considering Snape gave you that essay, I'd say there's a safe bet he knows, so I'd guess that he's safe? Probably? It's not like we'll have to see him as a wolf, right?" she says, and Harry rolls his eyes.

"C'mon Gin, it's _us_ , we're talking about. I give it a month before we accidentally stumble across him as a wolf," he says, and Ginny giggles.

* * *

After the Quidditch match goes terribly _awful_ , and Harry wakes up to find his broom smashed to pieces and the game lost, he tracks down Professor Lupin and persuades him to teach him how to get rid of the Dementors.

Lupin _ums_ and _ahhs_ but after Harry pulls the _I'm sure my dad wouldn't want me getting hurt just because I don't know one stupid spell_ , he agrees, even if he does dock ten points from Slytherin for 'being a cheeky little s- _child_ , honestly, you're exactly like your parents, and that's not a compliment this time Harry.'

After the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw game, Slytherin learns that they still have a chance to win the Championship, so Blaise writes home for his broom to lend to Harry- who isn't sure about the logistics of Wizarding World money, and if he should _really_ buy another broom. Before the next Hogsmede visit, Fred and George track Harry down and give him the Marauders Map to sneak off to meet up with Blaise and Pansy.

"But if you cork it doing something stupid, we've got first dibs on having it back," Fred jokes, and Harry hugs them in thanks.

He spends the day with Blaise and Pansy after Hermione storms off with Ron when he refuses to turn the Map into McGonagall, and he's with them when he overhears their teachers discussing Black's betrayal. Harry feels sick at the thought of his parents trusting someone enough to not only make them his _Godfather_ , but the person entirely responsible for his entire families safety, and loudly vows to kill Sirius Black if it's the last thing he ever does. Pansy holds him for an hour, whispering soothing words in his ears as Blaise force feeds him chocolate, and Harry feels a bit calmer when he crawls into bed that night.

* * *

Ginny, Ron and Hermione try and drag Harry to Hagrids to help with Buckbeaks case, but Harry weasels his way out of his and spends his day sulking around the castle, using the Map to avoid Pansy and Blaise.

He spends the next few weeks learning how to best ride Blaise's broom, and practising with Lupin to repel Dementors. He makes a lot more progress than Lupin expected, but a lot less than he expected of himself.

"This is a very advanced spell Harry, and with your memories, I'm honestly astonished that you're able to even make the attempts that you are," Lupin tells him after one particularly gruelling session, when they're both nibbling on chocolate.

"I don't think I'll ever fully get it," Harry admits, and Lupin opens his mouth to disagree. "No, wait, it's not that I don't think I'm good enough, it's just- I hear my mum, when a Dementor gets close. She's screaming, which obviously doesn't make me want to hear more, but- it feels like I'm disrespecting them, if I don't listen to the last things they ever said."

Lupin looks dangerously close to tears when he responds. "You may not remember the other things they've said to you Harry, but I promise you, Lily would much rather you didn't have to listen to her dying. She used to tell you she loved you almost every second, you should focus on that."

After that, their sessions go a bit better.

* * *

For Christmas, Harry receives some chocolates from Professor Lupin- _hey, these are the exact same ones I sent him,_ he laughingly tells Blaise- and a Firebolt from an anonymous person.

Blaise almost cries when he touches it, and after they've shown a squealing Ginny, Harry races up to the Gryffindor Tower to show the twins immediately.

Hermione yells and begs and eventually storms off and comes back not long after with McGonagall, who confiscates the broom straight away. Ginny looks at Hermione with horror and yells at her about how Black couldn't possibly afford a Firebolt, and _what's he gonna do Hermione, walk right into a broom store when half the country is on the lookout for him?_ Hermione bursts into tears, and drags a yowling Crookshanks up to her dorm room, and Harry ignores the pangs of guilt when Ron just sighs at him.

"She means well," he says, feeding Scabbers a treat. "I know she doesn't always _do_ well, but." He shrugs, and Harry sighs as well, before following a fuming Ginny back to their own common room.

* * *

Harry uses Blaise's broom to play the Ravenclaw match, and they win, even though the broom doesn't like him very much, and he almost missed the Snitch thanks to it.

Blaise apologises when Harry lands. "It's normally better behaved," he says, and Harry shrugs.

"Probably is can sense that I don't like it," he sighs, and Blaise looks over his shoulder at where Harry assumes Hermione is, surrounded by the other Gryffindor third years.

"You know she didn't mean any harm, and she was only looking out for you," Blaise says gently, and Harry scoffs.

"Maybe I'm a bit sick of people looking out for me," he huffs, and spends the next hour in the shower in the change rooms.

* * *

Harry gets his Firebolt back the next week, from a frowning McGonagall who warns him to still be cautious, and spends an hour flying circles around Ginny and Blaise. He uses the Map to find Hermione in the library later that night, and after she bursts into tears upon seeing him, he apologises.

"It seems like I can't stop ruining my friendships," she says sadly, explaining that Ron's pet rat has vanished, and it looks like her cat may have eaten him. "Oh but Harry, you understand that he's just doing what cats do, right?"

Harry nods his head, and pats her on the hand. "I reckon Ron just needs a bit of time," he tells her. "It's a stupid boy thing, or so Pansy tells me."

Hermione giggles, and looks a bit happier when he walks her to her common room later that night.

* * *

At the next Quidditch match, Gryffindor absolutely _flatten_ Ravenclaw, even despite Cho Chang catching the Snitch two hours in, and Fred and George sneak Harry and Ginny into the Gryffindor common room to celebrate that night; McGonagall kicks them out after only thirty minutes, and scoffs at their borrowed red and gold robes, muttering under her breath about how they were the least Gryffindor students she'd ever met before, and so it's not until the next morning that an excited Ron tells them about Sirius Black breaking into the third year dorms and threatening Ron with a knife.

Things are quiet for a little while, until Slytherin win the match against Gryffindor, and thus the Quidditch Cup, a few weeks later, and Ron forgives Hermione simply because he can't stand spending time with a gloating Harry and Ginny any longer.

During examinations in June, Harry hears Trelawney's prediction, and Buckbeak is sentenced to death, and Harry quietly sighs to Ginny about how things never stay too quiet for long, and they should have known.

* * *

Ginny, Hermione, and Harry are visiting Hagrid just before Buckbeaks execution, when they find Scabbers cowering in a milk jug. Ginny, having known Scabbers practically since birth, shoves him deep in her pocket as they escape before Fudge, Dumbledore and McNair arrive at Hagrids.

When the bounding black dog comes running towards them, it's Ginny that he snatches and drags down the tunnel underneath the Whomping Willow, but it's Harry- always Harry- that follows.

Things go much the same here; Harry screams and Sirius screams back and Remus begs and then Peter cries and cries and Harry stops the murder his father wouldn't have wanted to happen.

Snape still interferes of course, because he wouldn't be Snape if he didn't, but he still ends up passed out on a dirty mattress, thanks to three children (Lupin almost looks impressed with Harry, and Sirius actually laughs; _you are your fathers son then._ )

Harry has about five gleeful minutes of thinking he can go live with Sirius and Remus before the moon rises, and Peter escapes, and then there's dementors, and Ginny and Hermione are crying, and then there's nothing.

When he wakes up, Hermione's tucking a necklace around her neck, Dumbledore's words tucked into their brains, and after three turns, a few diversions, and a spell he never thought he'd manage, Sirius and Buckbeak are free.

"I don't feel any qualms about giving this back, now that I'm no longer your teacher," Lupin says, after Snape has spread the news of his condition, and consequently given a furious Harry a weeks' worth of detentions for loudly calling Snape jealous, and petty, and a poor excuse for a teacher. "Also, I feel like not only would James and Lily be disappointed in me for keeping it from you, but Sirius as well."

Harry beams, and on the train ride back to real life at the end of the year, spends his time writing a letter to both of his godfathers.

* * *

After Harry wakes from a dream involving Wormtail, and Voldemort, Frank and Nagini, he writes to Remus asking what it means, if anything, and then pointedly does not mention it in his letter to Blaise, instead choosing to focus on his upcoming visit with Blaise to the Qudditch World Cup.

Blaise writes back instantly, confirming that a car will be sent to Harry's house, and has been instructed to take him to Diagon Alley, where Blaise and his Mother will meet them.

 _You'll have to excuse Mother's behaviour_ , Blaise writes. _She's quite the 'Pure-blood' and refuses to acknowledge the current situation, despite the last three years when we've almost died whilst attending school._

Harry rings Hermione afterwards, who explains that many pureblood families are like this. "There's those families like Draco's, who outwardly hate Muggleborns, and Muggles in general, but many of the older families just prefer to ignore it, almost. They don't _like_ Muggleborns, sure, but they won't risk their social standing by saying so."

Harry pauses. "Hermione, do you think that Slytherins are inherently evil? I mean, Salazar certainly seemed to be."

Hermione sighs. "Oh, Harry. I think that Salazar was trying to do right by the Wizarding community, by keeping Muggleborns out. I don't agree with his methods- putting a Basilisk underneath the school was obviously unnecessary, and downright evil- but at the time the Founders were alive, Wizards and Witches were being burned at the stake for having Magic. I think that when Muggleborns were revealed to have Magic, it was harder to keep Hogwarts and the whole community a secret. Salazar wasn't evil; his actions may have been, sure, but I don't think his intentions were. Just like I don't think any house is bound by what their founders thought or did over a thousand years ago."

"Hermione," Harry says. "Sometimes I think you are incredibly wise."

Hermione laughs, and Harry can almost hear her blushing through the phone.

* * *

When the Dark Mark appears in the air at the World Cup, it's Blaise that explains what it means, Blaise that grips Harry's hand when the Auror's are quicker to believe he spelled it into the air, when it takes longer for them to become convinced that he didn't. Arthur Weasley, clapping a hand on Harry's back, stands in and repeats exactly what the two little boys in green were saying.

"He's a _child_ , he's not capable of this," he says, not even noticing the green knitted into Harry's Weasley jumper, or the green gloves on Blaise's hands. "I don't care what you think about them Diggory, you'll just have to investigate further. In the meantime, I'm going to take the boys back to the tent and leave them with my own."

On the walk back, with his fingers tucked into Blaises', Harry softly asks Mr. Weasley why he helped them, and Arthur smiles gently down at him. "My youngest daughter thinks the world of you, and if I've heard correctly, you've helped the twins out of a tight spot or two. But aside from all that, Harry, I meant what I said; you're a child, and not capable of what they were accusing you of, regardless of the colours on your school uniform."

Harry's silent for a moment, before, "but Voldemort was just a child, once, wasn't he, Sir?"

Mr. Weasley pales at the name, and Harry sighs. "Well, there's always an odd one, isn't there?" he returns, before whisking them into his tent, where Harry is instantly thrown to the ground by Ginny.

"Oh thank _god_ ," she murmurs into his hair. "You're okay, we were so worried."

Percy snorts from across the room, and Ron raises an eyebrow when Hermione pulls Harry into a tight hug the second Ginny has moved onto hugging Blaise.

Harry quickly lets go of Hermione, and offers a hand to Ron, who shakes it with an unsure smile on his face.

"How about that game, then?" Harry asks. "Reckon we could talk Madam Hooch into showing us how to do the Wronski Feint?" And as always, when confronted with Quidditch, Ron's guards relax instantly, and Harry, Blaise, Hermione and the Weasley's spend the rest of their night in peace.

* * *

When Harry's name is spat out of the Goblet of Fire, Ginny squeezes his hand so tight that Pansy has to forcibly remove her so Harry can stand. The whispers are louder in this world, where Harry has green trimmed on his robes, where his detention record is a lot longer. Snape sneers at him, and even some of the other teachers spend the next few weeks taking points from Slytherin for completely ridiculous reasons. Millicent protests loudly when Professor Sprout takes ten points from Slytherin for Harry being too 'gentle' with his plant; she ends up with a detention and another ten points taken, but for the rest of the week, the Slytherins argue against every unfair punishment they witness Harry receive, and Harry starts finding chocolates and other sweets hidden in his bed.

Draco makes a half-hearted attempt at starting a _Potter Stinks_ campaign, but Astoria Greengrass shuts it down instantly, much to Harry's surprise.

"Your mother raised you to be a better man than this, Draco," she snaps one night, in their common room, snapping one of the badges in half. There's a fire blazing in her eyes that reminds Harry strongly of Ginny, and for the first time in a while, someone outside his little group of friends has made him proud to be a Slytherin.

(Sirius writes him about his Aunt Andromeda, McGonagall tells him about one of her favourite students Kingsley Shacklebolt; there are so many reasons for Harry to be proud of being a Slytherin)

* * *

In this world, I imagine that Harry would have learnt of Snape's true identity sooner. It was whispered in the common room, hissed at Harry in the Great Hall. Blaise's cousin went to school with Snape. With James, Sirius, Lily. With Lupin, who he so obviously hated. The summer after third year, Blaise learns that Snape used to be obsessed with the mudblood girl that Voldemort killed. Harry learns this when he gets back that year, after his name is pulled from the cup. This is not something you can learn from a letter, Blaise had decided.

Remus apologises for not having told him earlier, and Sirius reminds them both that he was _in jail, for the last twelve years, having my soul slowly sucked from my body; excuse me for forgetting a few things,_ and Harry has to remind himself that he's not really angry at them, but at Snape. Sirius had learnt to love his godson, not just for all the ways he was like James, but for all the ways he was not. Sirius had learnt to love the green on his robes just as he had once loved the green in Lily's eyes. Snape had never learnt to see the parts of Lily in him, had never bothered to try and find the good parts of James; he'd never looked long enough in Harry's bright eyes to ignore his familiar messy black hair, and the smirk that mimicked James' completely.

When Harry overhears Snape and Karkaroff talking about the dark mark later in the year, Pansy, frowning, fidgeting, explains what it is, what it means. Harry screams himself hoarse when Trelwaney lets it slip that it was Snape that betrayed his parents, that it was Snape that ultimately led them to their deaths. Dumbledore says things like _I'm_ _sorry, but it was for the best_ and _he's changed_ and Blaise yells things like _he's been bullying Harry for the last three years_ and _how could you let a known Death Eater work here_ and Harry says nothing after the initial yelling, but he staunchly refuses to attend any Potions lessons for the rest of the year; Remus sends strongly worded letters in agreement (Harry suspects Sirius slipped in a few Howlers as well) and McGonagall backs him up.

"I don't care if he isn't in my house," she snaps, when Dumbledore comments that Snape is Harry's head of house, and thus has to agree with his educational decisions. "Severus is a bully, plain and simple. Harry's suffered enough, and I refuse to let him suffer longer. I will tutor him personally Albus; I do think my marks in Potions rival only Severus' and Pomoa's."

Hermione brings him the homework assignments, and Harry gives them to McGonnagall to mark; he ends up with higher grades than Snape ever gave him, as well as more feedback on how to do even better. Pansy helps him brew Potions in their common room, in between fighting dragons with Hermione's help, and saving Blaise from the lake with Dobby's. Dumbledore tries to argue, tries to explain why Potions is necessary for Harry's education, why attending the lessons is vital. Pansy scoffs, and interrupts Harry from replying.

"He's already faced You-Know-Who three times, and beat his ugly ass every time. Not to mention he single handily fought off about a hundred dementors last year, while Professor Snape was _unconscious,_ thanks to two third year students and one second year," she pauses, looking thoughtful. "Well, one second year, one third year, and Granger, who I'm pretty sure qualifies as at least a sixth year, maybe. I highly doubt missing _Potions_ , of all things, is going to have much of an impact on anything," she drawls, pulling Harry away as Dumbledore tries to argue.

* * *

When the Yule Ball is announced, Ginny's sullen for the entire day before she finally plants herself in Harry's lap during dinner and refuses to move unless he agrees to take her.

"I'm a third year," she reminds him, frowning, when Harry just looks confused. "So I won't be able to go if you don't invite me."

Harry blinks up at her. "Who else would I have taken, Gin?"

Ginny's a lot happier, after that, and Harry works in secret with Pansy, who is a genius with clothing spells, to alter her robes to reflect his own green ones; hers are light silver, with green trimmed around the edges, and Harry feels his mouth drop to the floor the first time he sees her in them. Pansy smiles smugly from across the room, where she's standing with Blaise, who simply rolls his eyes.

When Hermione shows up at the ball on Victor Krum's arm, looking beautiful in a light blue dress, her hair tame for once in her life, Harry watches as Ron's mouth practically drops to the floor. Next to Harry, Ginny giggles quietly behind her hands.

"He tried to ask her last night," she whispers to Harry, when they begin dancing. "But she told him she was already going someone, and he accused her of lying, and implied that she couldn't get a date; I thought Hermione was going to hex his mouth permanently shut," she sighs, almost in regret, and Harry smirks.

"Krum, though," Harry says. "How on earth did that come about?"

Ginny shrugs as Harry twirls her. "They met in the library, I think. They're kind of sweet, don't you think?"

Harry looks over at Hermione, who's blushing a pretty pink as she laughs at something Krum says. "I guess," he shrugs. "Who'd Ron end up coming with?"

Ginny giggles again, and points in Ron's direction. Her friend from Ravenclaw- Luna, Harry distantly remembers- is standing next to Ron, looking completely infatuated with the entire situation. "She wanted to dance ever so badly, and after Ron struck out with Fleur, I set it up," she says, and Harry giggles.

"Ron looks miserable," he says, waving over in his direction. Ron grunts, and frowns at him and Ginny.

"He deserves it," Ginny decides, before twirling Harry around. "He tried to stop me going with you, you know, by setting me up with Neville."

Harry scowls. "I thought he'd gotten over this whole Slytherin hatred," he says, and Ginny rolls her eyes.

"It's not that, it's that you're a _boy_ ," Ginny informs him.

Harry frowns. "So's Neville," he points out, and Ginny sighs.

"But Neville isn't a threatening boy," she explains. "Ron wouldn't have to worry about him. But anyway, I convinced Millicent to go with him; they make quite a nice pair," she says, and Harry catches sight of them dancing close to him and Ginny, Neville holding Millicent at arm's length, as if she may bite if she gets to close. He's probably right to worry, Harry thinks, if the way she's looking at him is any indication.

"But why does he have to worry about _me_?" Harry protests, and Ginny just sighs, and twirls him again in response.

* * *

After they learn about the maze, Pansy writes to her Auror cousin, and Harry writes to Sirius and Remus, and together they learn a lot of defensive spells.

"Some offensive would be a good idea as well," Pansy points out one night. "Since we don't know exactly what you'll be facing in that maze."

Hermione hums from where she's curled up on the comfy couch the room of requirement had provided. "Maybe you should dedicate some time to researching the types of things you might come across, and look into more theoretical things, rather than just purely practical," she suggests, and Pansy rolls her eyes.

"I don't think he'll have to do a test in the maze Granger," she says, and Hermione frowns at her.

"You _just_ said that we don't know what Harry will be facing in the maze," Hermione reminds her. "He may very well have to do a test."

Pansy and Harry both roll their eyes at her, but Harry reads the books Hermione gives him anyway.

* * *

In the maze, Harry manages to get past Blast-Ended-Skrewts, and Boggarts; Krum, and the Sphinx; and then with Cedrics help, an Acromantula. But none of that matters, because Cedric is still struck down with a flash of green light, and Harry's blood is still forcibly taken from him.

When the ghosts of his parents appear, his mums hand gently fiddles with the green collar on his shirt. "We're so proud of you," she tells him, before they swarm Voldemort, and give Harry time to escape with Cedric's body.

When he gets back to Hogwarts, Moody whisks him away, and explains the craziness that has been happening over the last few months; starting all with Harry's dream, and the missing Bertha Jorkins, the disappearing Mr. Crouch, the sacking of Winky the Elf. Harry watches and listens in horror as he reveals him true self; only relaxing with Dumbledore comes storming in.

Harry spends the next few nights taking sleeping potion to try and make the bad dreams stay away, and every morning when he wakes, a large black dog is curled up in his hospital bed, snoring softly, and Harry wonders, not for the first time, if things would be any different if he'd just followed in his parents footsteps, if he hadn't gone to Slytherin, if he hadn't gone to the House that had produced so much evil.

"I don't want to hear any more of that talk from you," Sirius snaps, one day. "I have spent my whole life hating anyone who wore green, and I was _wrong_ , Harry, and I don't admit that often, so you better listen up. Your house does not define you- look at Wormtail. He was in _Gryffindor_ , the house that's brave, and loyal, and unafraid, and he was the weakest person I've ever met, there isn't a single loyal bone in his body, and he is still scared of his own shadow. You define your own house, Harry, and it's not your fault that Slytherin has just been unlucky these last few decades. You and your friends are creating the exact environment that Slytherin needs, and _that_ is what you need to focus on Harry; Slytherins future, not its past."

Harry hugs his godfather, hard, when he finishes talking, and Sirius reminds him to tell Remus that _I gave a very age-appropriate, uplifting speech without any racist undertones_ ; _I need to score some points with him, he's still mad about me sneaking up here to watch the Tournament._

Harry's fourth year ends with a thousand galleons transferred from his pocket to Fred and George's, with hugs from his friends and a kiss on the cheek from Ginny; Harry blushes a bright red the whole car ride home, even as Uncle Vernon mumbles under his breath about more red headed witches.

* * *

When the dementors attack him and Dudley, Harry doesn't think twice before shooting his Patronus at them; Dudley still goes down like a sack of potatoes, and with Ms. Figg's help, Harry drags him back to number 4 Privet Drive.

He's expelled and unexpelled in a matter of minutes, and then spends four days locked in his bedroom before he's rescued by Lupin, Moody, Kingsley & Tonks. They leave the house on brooms, and even though everyone's expecting to get killed the second they hit the air, Harry thinks that he's never felt freer, than up there in the air surrounded by true friends.

When he arrives, Moody shoves a piece of paper in his face, and when Harry looks up, a house appears, out of nowhere. It's been four years, and magic still manages to surprise him; Harry hopes he never loses that feeling (when Ginny throws her arms around him the moment she sees him, Harry thinks that he'll never lose the feeling of magic, not as long as she's around).

12 Grimmauld Place is dark, and creepy, and Harry is not altogether surprised when he learns that Sirius grew up there; Mrs. Black yells from the corridor as Ginny explains in hushed whispers about Percy leaving, and Ron grumpily mutters about the secret meetings the Order's having, and how they're not allowed in, _even if we are fourth years now_.

Hermione rolls her eyes, hugs Harry tightly, and warns him against trying to listen in, "Molly's on a rampage; caught the Twins trying to eavesdrop," she says, and Ron and Ginny wince in sympathy.

Harry falls asleep that first night, in a room with Ron snoring in the bed across from his, with his stomach full, and a smile on his face.

* * *

Umbridge turns out to be even worse than Lockhart, or Quirrell- and that's _without_ Voldemort sticking out of the back of her head. When she forces the blood quill on Harry, Ginny screams and yells for hours, before marching right down to Professor McGonagall. Harry's next four detentions are with Snape, cleaning out things in the Potions lab, and Umbridge continues to ignore him in class, which suits Harry just fine- Hermione and Ron suggest a Defense group, and Blaise, Millicent, Ginny and- surprisingly- Astoria Greengrass join instantly. If less members of other Houses join because of this, well, Harry expects nothing less.

Ron manages to become Gryffindor's Keeper, and Ginny lands one of the Chaser spots on the Slytherin team. Fred and George show up to the first Slytherin v. Ravenclaw match decked in green and silver, cheering louder than ever for Ginny and Harry; Slytherin win by sixty points, and Ginny is ecstatic for the following week, until she receives a letter from Percy, warning her off of Harry; _I just want you to be safe,_ he writes. Ginny throws the letter in the fire, and spends the night in the Gryffindor tower, plotting with Fred and George. Harry feels almost sorry for him, when Ginny proudly announces the letter Fred and George sent him. _He's going to have those boils for weeks_ , she says, gleefully. Harry makes a mental reminder to _never_ get on her bad side.

They continue learning nothing except how to bite their tongues in Defense, and Harry and Hermione make a list of spells he can teach during DA meetings; Ron scoffs when Harry writes down _Expelliarmus,_ and then Hermione shoots the spell at him, and holds his wand hostage until the next day; he's a lot quieter after that.

After Harry sees Mr. Weasley being bitten by a snake in his dreams, Dumbledore organises Occlumency lessons with Snape; these go about as well as can be expected when Snape is involved, and Harry learns quicker than he may have in another world, because in this world, he's more determined than ever to keep Snape out of his thoughts, and memories. He's determined that Snape doesn't deserve to hear the stories Sirius and Remus have told him about Lily, and James. One day, Snape is angrier than normal, and Harry shoots a _protego_ spell at him, and has to witness his dad bully Snape like Dudley bullied him. Harry's proud of his mum for yelling at James; Merlin knows he deserves it. Afterwards, the lessons continue with McGonagall instead, and afterwards, she makes him tea, and tells him nicer stories about his father.

"He really grew up in his sixth year," she tells him one night. "Your mother had a big influence on that, obviously, but he was always going to grow up. He just had a lot of things to unlearn." Harry thinks of Pansy, and how her friends stopped speaking to her when she started spending time with Harry, and started verbally protesting Voldemort's actions. He thinks of Blaise, whose mother refuses to acknowledge that a war happened, that another war was on the brim of beginning. He thinks of Draco, and the longing looks he shot at Pansy and Blaise in the Common Room at night, when Blaise is curled around Harry on a couch in front of a fire, where Ginny is braiding Pansy's hair. He thinks of Ron, and the rest of the Weasley's, and how they had to learn to accept their sister wearing green and silver instead of the red and gold the rest of the siblings wore.

"I think there's a lot of people who have to unlearn some things," Harry replies, and McGonagall smiles at him.

* * *

When Umbridge uncovers the DA, Dumbledore flees Hogwarts, and Umbridge is made Headmaster. Things get steadily worse at Hogwarts, and without the DA there to make him feel like he's doing something, Harry slowly falls into a depression. He dreams of flashes of green lights, and the sound Cedric's body made when he fell to the ground. He dreams of rats escaping and of betrayal, of ghosts in diaries slowly stealing a little girl's soul. Madam Prompfrey brews him batch after batch of dreamless sleep potion, and Harry tries to remember how to breathe, tries to focus on how to go on.

The vision of Sirius being tortured by Voldemort sends him falling to his knees, and planning a way to save him; Hermione begs and pleads, but Ginny backs Harry up; they fly to the Ministry on the Thestrals that only he and Luna can see, and when they get there, the fights goes about the same as it would in any other world. Bellatrix shoots spell after spell, and one hits a laughing Sirius, who falls back through the veil. Harry feels like he's burning from the inside out, the rage inside him exploding as he runs after Bellatrix; it's this, in the end, that allows Voldemort to posses him. It's his love, in the end, that drives him out.

"It is not the ways you are similar that matter," Dumbledore says afterwards, when he's shown Harry the prophecy, "it's the ways you are different."

When Harry heads back to Privet Drive that year, he's antsier than normal, the thrum of a war beginning beating under his skin. Every beat of his heart just reminds him of another second where Voldemort is getting stronger, gaining more followers. Laying in bed at night, Harry thinks of Draco, with his father in prison. He thinks Draco will want revenge, he thinks he'll do something stupid to get it. Despite himself, he feels sorry for him.

"You sure have a history of feeling sorry for people who don't really deserve it," Ginny comments, at one point. Harry thinks of how she grew up loved, and wanted, and richer than he's ever been.

"I have a history of knowing that people who prove that they aren't always what they're brought up to be," he replies, and Ginny, blushing, apologises.

The suspicions about Draco are confirmed in Diagon Alley, when Harry, Ron and Hermione follow him to Borgin and Burkes, leaving Ginny with Fred and George. Harry becomes convinced that Draco has the dark mark; "he's replaced his father, can't you see Hermione?" he says, but Hermione just purses her lips. "He's a child," she insists, and Harry wants to snap. _We're children too_ , he thinks. _And we're just as caught up in the war as anyone, maybe he just got lost in the wrong side._

He conveys his suspicions to Blaise, and Pansy, who look pained. "He used to be my friend," Pansy says, sadly. "I knew him better than anyone, but I still don't think I ever really knew him."

"Well, you changed," Harry points out, and Pansy frowns. "If we talked to him, maybe we could get him too as well."

Pansy considers this for a moment. "Our upbringings were a lot different," she says, eventually. "My parents were never in as deep as his were; they're a lot older, and were more established than the Malfoy's. They didn't have as much to prove as Draco's father did, or does, I guess."

"I still think I could talk some sense into him," Harry protests. "Do you think it's possible?" Harry he asks Blaise.

"Anything is, these days," he answers, and then refuses to discuss it further.

As the year goes on, Dumbledore starts slowly showing Harry bits and pieces of Voldemort's life as Tom Riddle, and eventually reveals his Horcruxes, and the reason he coaxed Slughorn back to Hogwarts. Hermione is gobsmacked when Harry meets with her, Blaise, Pansy, Ginny and Ron in the Room of Requirement one night. "He really is immortal," she murmurs, before heading to the library to do some further reading, despite Harry telling her that Dumbledore removed all the books.

"That's Hermione for you," Ron jokes. "When in doubt, go to the library."

Later, after Katie is cursed by the necklace, and Ron is poisoned by Slughorns Firewhisky, Harry joins Hermione in the library and splits his time between trying to convince her of Draco's obvious guilt, and looking for ways around the illegality of forcing someone to take a truth spell. He doesn't accomplish either of these things, and staunchly avoids the library for a long time afterwards in protest; he fails one of his Herbology essays, as a result, and then begrudgingly goes back.

* * *

When Harry figures out that Hermione likes Ron- after Ginny and Pansy point it out- he's mildly grossed out. "She's like my _sister_ ," he protests, when Pansy accuses him of being jealous, much to Ginny's annoyance. "It's gross to think of her dating someone."

Ginny mimes puking. "And Ron _is_ my brother- it's equally gross to think of him dating someone."

Pansy sighs. "If it makes you feel any better, it will take at _least_ another six years for them to even admit their feelings for each other." Harry argues against this, proclaiming that he has more faith in Ron; this turns out to be misguided, because only a few days later, Ron announces that he's dating one of the other sixth year Gryffindor girls, Lavender Brown. Hermione ignores him for weeks afterwards, instead eating at the Slytherin table, and spending more and more time in the library rather than the Gryffindor Common Room. During this time, she reveals to Harry that Dean Thomas asked Ginny on a date to Hogsmede the month before, and smirks smugly when Harry's face reddens with anger.

"She's way too good for him," he argues, and Hermione merely hums.

"She said no," she tells him, and Harry frowns at her.

"You should have opened with that," he says, and Hermione smirks again.

"Did you know you liked her?" she asks, and Harry sputters.

"I- what- that's-"

"I only asked, because Ginny herself figured it out at least two years ago," she says, and Harry's stunned into silence for the next few hours. Later, when Harry's walked her back to the Gryffindor Common Room, after ensuring via the Marauders Map that Ron was up in his dorm, Hermione gives him a hug. "You should tell her," she says. "You two deserve all the happiness you can get, truly."

Harry thinks about this all the way back to the Slytherin Common Room, and has just about made up his mind to keep quiet until he can fully figure out Ginny's thoughts about this entire situation, when he see's her lounging on the couch in front of the fire, a tattered book in her hands, and Millicent's cat curled up in her lap. Harry sits down next to her, and Ginny smiles softly at him.

"Did you finish your essay?" she asks, and Harry kisses her in response. Ginny makes a surprised sound, which is swallowed up in their kiss. He pulls her closer to him, and the cat hisses, jumping off her lap in annoyance. They pull apart, and Ginny erupts in giggles. "What brought this on?" she asks, a moment later.

Harry shrugs. "Been in the works for awhile, I think," he replies, and she cocks her head, and raises an eyebrow at him.

"Hermione filled you in on how you felt, didn't she?" she asks, and Harry blushes.

"I'm not _that_ oblivious!" he protests, and Ginny, smiling, kisses him again.

"You're lucky I find it cute," she tells him, after. Blaise finds them curled around each other on the couch the next morning, and Pansy laughs for about ten minutes.

"About time," is all Ron has to say about it, when they turn up in the Great Hall for breakfast, holding hands. Hermione smiles smugly at Harry, and Ron breaks up with Lavender that very night.

* * *

Harry learns from Dobby and Kreacher that Draco has been periodically visiting the Room of Requirement, and resolves to investigate further once he wrestles the memory from Slughorns mind, as Dumbledore asked. It's not until he remembers the Liquid Luck, and sneaks down for Aragog's funeral that he manages anything; Slughorn, drunk and regretful, hands over the memory with his apologies, and Harry rushes it straight to Dumbledore. It's not long after this that Dumbledore takes him to the rocky island where Voldemort hid the locket that Regulus Black would later die trying to recover.

The potion sends Dumbledore to his knees, begging and pleading and apologising to ghosts- Harry feels wretched, but he coaxes and cajoles and forces it down his throat anyway. When they get back to Hogwarts, the Dark Mark is hovering above the castle, and Draco disarms Dumbledore as Harry is forced to watch, frozen in place. Snape shows up, and Harry- for a moment- is thankful. Dumbledore has the chance to plead and beg once more, but he falls under Snape's wand. Harry would chase after Snape, would scream about cowards and traitors, but Pansy pulls him away, slaps him in the face, and reminds him that threatening a man as pathetic as that is not worth anybodies time. Instead, Harry spends his night mourning Dumbledore, and reading the note left in the fake locket from R.A.B. Hermione quietly searches the library for information, but finds nothing except the identity of the Half-Blood Prince; Harry wishes he'd burnt the book, later. Wishes he'd used the _Sectumsempra_ on Snape instead of Draco.

He tries to end things with Ginny after Dumbledore's funeral, tries to keep her out of the danger he knows is sure to follow. "I'm a _Weasley_ , Harry," she says, rolling her eyes. "I'm in all sorts of danger as it is- might as well help you kill bits of Voldemort's soul while I'm at it." Harry begs, and pleads but the fierce look on Ginny's face doesn't waver once. "For the last six years, Potter, you, Pansy and Blaise have been having all the fun. I'm not about to miss out again, just for a stupid, brave reason. Slytherins stick together," she adds, and Pansy and Blaise appear behind her, Pansy squeezing in next to Harry, and Blaise leaning on Ginny, linking his fingers with hers. Harry stares at their linked hands; his dark skin and her pale skin. His own skin is a nice mix of them, he thinks.

"Ginny's right," Blaise says softly. "You aren't leaving her behind. Millicent and I are going to stay here, with Ron and look after Hogwarts, Pansy and Hermione are going with you, and Draco-" Blaise breaks off, looking pained.

"We've all made choices, and we've all got to live with them," Astoria fills in, popping up beside Harry, leaning her head on Pansy's shoulder. "Daph and I will be here too; we'll make sure everyone's safe." Harry wonders when Astoria became a part of his little family, and remembers all of the times she stuck up for him, all of the times her screaming matches with Draco filled the Slytherin Common Room, of fourth year, when sweets often found their way under his pillow. He thinks maybe she's been his friend a lot longer than he's been hers.

Harry stares at Ginny, who stares back determinedly. "I can't promise your safety," he whispers, voice cracking as he looks between her and Pansy. "I don't know what's going to happen, out there, and I can't promise you two will be okay."

Ginny nods, and Pansy smiles at him. "We know that," she says, voice soft and smooth, so unlike her usual tone. "But Harry- wherever you are is the safest place for us. And you need our help, you have to admit that. Granger's smart and all, but she's not us."

Ginny nods in agreement, and Harry feels his knees weaken. "There's nothing I can do to change your mind, is there?"

Ginny grins, and Pansy laughs. "We're Slytherins," she says. "You can't honestly think we're going to let you go off to save the world with only a Gryffindor to protect you!"

"While I'm sure that was meant to be offensive, she's quite right," Hermione says, walking up to the group, and grinning and Pansy, who raises her eyebrows. "Oh don't give me that look Parkinson, it was bound to happen at least once," she teases, and Pansy smirks.

* * *

After Fleur and Bill's wedding, after Dumbledore's last requests are relayed to Harry, Blaise, and Hermione, Harry escapes to Grimmauld Place. When Hermione figures out that Kreacher had and lost the locket, they rope Dobby into helping him tail Mundugus; it's not too long until they find out that Umbridge had stolen it from him. They hole up in Grimmauld Place, Harry, Hermione, Pansy and Ginny, and devise a plan to steal it back. Pansy- the pureblood, the one good at keeping her mouth shut around people who might not agree with her- walks into the Ministry, smiling and waving at friends of her parents. Some of these people changed her diapers, and helped teach her how to walk and talk. These same people are killing her friends now. So Pansy smiles, and pretends she's interested in a Ministry position, and then with Harry's help- under the cloak, with Ginny- stuns Umbridge and duplicates the necklace.

This part of the War drags on longer than Harry expected- they go days without finding anything much except writing on a snitch that doesn't do anything, and then suddenly, everything happens at once; Hermione pulls the Sword of Gryffindor from a lake, and Ginny gleefully destroys the locket, Xenophilius Lovegood tells them the Tale of the Three Brothers, and almost gives them up to the Death Eaters, Harry explodes with anger when the girls talk him out of searching for the Hallows, and the Snatchers come. They get taken to Malfoy Manor, and chucked in the basement with Luna, Ollivander, Griphook and Dean Thomas. With Dobby's help, they escape with the sword, Bellatrix's hair and her knife, stuck in Dobby's chest.

Harry buries Dobby, and allows himself an hour of mourning, before he starts making a plan. They break into Gringotts that week, with Griphooks help, and manage to escape with another Horcrux, setting free the dragon on their way out. Harry makes a mental note to let Hagrid know where to find him, assuming they both survive the war.

They slip into Hogwarts silently, finally reuniting with Ron and Blaise, Millicent and Astoria, Neville and Luna. The twins follow not long after, bringing Lee Jordan and a handful of other friends and allies with them; Remus and Tonks included. The battle begins before Harry knows it, and suddenly there's Death Eaters fighting with students Harry used to eat lunch with, students he taught _expelliarmus_ to. Somewhere amidst the fighting, Ron and Hermione appear with armfuls of Basilisk fangs; Ginny pales at the sight of these, and then almost vomits at the sight of Hermione flinging herself into Ron's arm, and kissing him.

"There is a _war_ going on!" she shouts, when she's recovered, and Ron and Hermione pull apart, blushing.

Ron grins at Harry as Hermione busies herself picking up fangs. "So it's now or never then, isn't it?" Ginny scoffs, and kisses Harry quickly before running off with her mum and dad.

Luna leads them right to the Grey Lady who leads them right to the Diadem. Despite Crabbe and Goyle's interference, Harry, Ron and Hermione manage to recover the Horcrux; Harry silently sends up a prayer when he see's Draco fleeing the Room of Requirement before Crabbe and Coyle confront them.

"I refuse to stop hoping people will change," he tells a stunned Ron, after they go back for Crabbe and Goyle; Crabbe burns along with the Diadem, but Goyle is a blubbering mess on the way out, _thank you's_ spilling from his lips like Harry once watched curses spill from his wand.

"What, do you think you can just have a nice little chat with You-Know-Who?" Ron spits back. "Harry- you _have_ to end this war, and we all know that him dying is the only way. You can't just give every Death Eater a second chance."

"We are _children_ ," he says, when Goyle and Draco use this argument to their advantage and disappear into the fighting. "Voldemort has had _years_ to redeem himself; I _know_ he's a lost cause. But I absolutely _refuse_ to treat kids as hopeless." Hermione looks unbelievably proud of him in that moment, and Harry gulps when he thinks of what he has to do next.

* * *

In the battle, those with green ties are eyed suspiciously. Here we have kids fighting against their friends, their siblings, their _parents_ , in the name of their home, in the name of Hogwarts, in the name of _good_ , and they're doing this all while carefully watching their backs, while protecting themselves from people who are meant to be on the same side as them.

The kids in red and gold look at them like they aren't to be trusted, their eyes blazing with anger, with distrust. Those in blue and bronze are wary; they do not turn their backs on those in green. The children with yellow on their robes guards their friends' backs, even those wearing different colours. One girl with a yellow scarf rips it off and replaces it with her friend's green one, glaring at anyone who dares to argue.

The Gryffindor's charge into the fight, without thinking. The Slytherins pause- not to decide _whether_ they're going to fight, but to decide _how_. At the end of it, there are less injured Slytherin students. Less dead. Slytherins are cunning, are intelligent, and are _deadly_ when you hurt one of their own.

The fighting goes much the same here: Severus Snape, killed for a wand he never truly possessed, memories passed on to a stunned Harry. Fred Weasley dies mid-laughter, and Percy kills the Death Eater that shot the curse instantly. Harry watches as Professor Trelawney shatters a crystal ball over Fenrir Greyback's head, watches as Lavender lies motionless, watches as Colin's body, even smaller in death, is carried into the Great Hall. He finds Remus and Tonks, lying side by side, stiller than Harry had ever seen Tonks before.

Voldemort delivers the ultimatum, and Harry, knowing what he has to do, sneaks up into Dumbledore's office, and loses himself in Snape's memories. He's grateful to Snape for the first time in his life, for giving him the gift of seeing his parents one last time before dying. Harry slips his invisibility cloak over his shoulders for the last time, and heads out to the forest to meet his destiny.

* * *

There's shouts and protests from students of all Houses when a sobbing Hagrid carries an unmoving Harry into the courtyard, with Voldemort standing in front of everyone, proclaiming that the war is won, that Harry Potter is no more. Neville stands up, and yells and shouts, and promises that he will never join Voldemort; he kills the snake, and Harry tumbles from Hagrids arms.

The war ends much the same here- with Bellatrix losing her life after underestimating a mothers love, with Voldemort reduced to nothing but Tom Riddle, with Harry winning the wand, winning the fight, winning the war.

One of the Gryffindor's smiles awkwardly at Pansy afterwards, as he lets Pansy bandage his wounds. Pansy glowers as he tells her that she was braver than he thought, that maybe there isn't much of a difference between Gryffindor's and Slytherin's after all.

Pansy laughs in his face. _Of course there's a difference; we're a lot smarter than you_ , she corrects, _and anyway, bravery is overrated._ The boy's eyebrows furrow as he watches her disappear into the crowd, as he watches her gently pry Dennis away from Collin's body, wrapping her arms around him as he sobs.

Slytherins are brave, yes. But they are more important things too: loyal, intelligent, and determined. Loving.

* * *

Lets tell this story:

After the war is over, Harry's scar would not ache, but he would.

Harry would never have an entirely happy ending; the war would always be too close to the front of his mind. Both of them: the war that took his parents, and the war that he wished took him, some days. Sometimes he wonders if they were the same war, really, just a long, drawn out one. He usually decides it doesn't matter, regardless. Because there was a war, or two, and he fought in both of them, in all of it. He would never fully recover from the marks it left- the physical ones were never important, but the mental ones had scarred him far deeper than anybody could have guessed.

At night, he wakes up screaming, and sobbing, to find Ginny already awake, staring at the ceiling, the dark circles under her eyes deepening with every passing day. Harry has nightmares about Voldemort, snakelike and cruel; Ginny has nightmares about Tom Riddle, charming and cool. They fear the same things, in different ways, and they fight about it in the mornings. Ginny hears Tom in her mind, at times, but Harry feels Voldemort in his soul. They hold each other, on the good nights. They don't, on the bad nights. It takes months, and years, for them to fall back in love, but when they do, it's different, _they're_ different.

Harry blames himself for all the losses, and he worries that Ginny does too, every time he catches her staring at a photo of Fred, or wincing when she sees Bill's scarred face. It isn't until she literally slaps some sense into him that he tries to forgive himself.

"My brother didn't _die_ so you could sit around and feel sorry for yourself," she hisses, eyes blazing. Over the years, Harry sometimes has stared at Ginny, angry, and brave, and wondered why she wasn't put into Gryffindor. On days like this, with his cheek stinging and eyes watering, Harry wonders how the Hat could have even considered it. "So get off your arse, and stop looking at me like that. Fred _died_. Tonks, Lupin, Colin. They're all gone, Harry, but it wasn't for you. It was for _us_ , for our world. They all knew what they were getting into, they all knew what could happen. Just like your parents, just like Sirius. Not everything revolves around you."

It takes Harry a long time, and a lot of late night talks with Hermione, Aberforth and Andromeda to realise that he can't carry all this guilt around. "It's not that you _can't_ ," Hermione says, over tea. "It's that you _shouldn't_."

Blaise visits them on his bad nights, crawling into their bed at three am, wrapping his arms around Harry, and tangling his fingers with Ginny's. These three kids, loss and heartache tucked into their skin, like schoolbooks tucked into their bags. Blaise's mum send him owl after owl, and Ginny takes great pleasure in setting fire to all her letters.

"She couldn't look after me before Voldemort died, and she shouldn't get to do it now," Blaise says, frowning. Harry cries a bit, later. Three kids, and only three parents, and only two of them are any good. After Hermione tearfully decides to leave her parents in Australia, too worried about another war beginning to bring them back, Harry drags Blaise kicking and fighting to his mum's house, and forces them to sit down and _talk_.

"You suck as a mum, for a lot of reasons. Your son was off saving the world and being good, and all you cared about were appearances, and your own safety. But you have a chance now, because you're both alive, and that's all that matters," he says, holding Blaise's shaking hand in his own. "This is the only time I'm going to force the issue. If you can't convince him that he should stick around, and try again, than that's it. We'll leave, and we won't be coming back."

Harry leaves, and comes back an hour later to find Mrs. Zabini sobbing, holding Blaise in her arms. Blaise doesn't scream, or cry, like Harry. He doesn't stare at the ceiling, rocking back and forth, like Ginny. Blaise goes out and drinks and kisses girls and sleeps with boys, but comes home to Harry and Ginny, always. Millicent brings her cat around, on the good days, and just herself, on the bad ones. She cooks for them, and forces them to shower, to sleep, when she knows they aren't doing it by themselves.

Hermione goes back to Hogwarts, to finish off her education, and sends letters back weekly. Eventually, after graduating with the highest marks since Dumbledore himself (McGonnagall tells her this, eyes shining. _Your transfiguration marks outdid even mine, Ms. Granger. Well done_ ), she ends up working in the Ministry, and starts saving the world, one house elf at a time. Ron tries to persuade Harry to join the Auror's with him, but Harry can't handle the thought of having to fight more dark wizards, not when he's spent his entire life doing it; Ginny backs him up.

Hermione fights tooth and nail for therapy to be included in St. Mungos, and forces Ron and Harry to be the first to use the new program. They make it a standing date, the three of them. Ron usually ends up angry, slamming doors and throwing things on the way out; Harry cries mostly, and Hermione talks and talks until her voice is hoarse. Eventually, it helps.

Two years after Hermione graduates, and one year after Ginny's debut with the Holyhead Harpies, Harry goes back to school. Headmaster McGonnagall hires him as the Defence teacher the minute he graduates, and Harry moves into a small cottage in Hogsmede, and spends weekends there with Ginny, and Blaise, curled up in front of their fireplace, a large black dog named Snuffles asleep at their feet.

Let's tell this story:

A boy, scarred, learning to love again. A boy, broken down by war, learning to live again.

Slughorn retires when Harry begins his fifth year of teaching, and McGonnagall promotes Harry to Head of Slytherin House. Harry and Ginny still take tea with McGonnagall every Thursday night, and Hermione visits every second weekend, pulling Ron along with her. Harry and Millicent visit George and Lee Jordan at the joke shop, and drink to Fred's memory every third Friday. Harry and Blaise have lunch with Draco Malfoy once a month, at Andromeda's house, with Narcissa and Teddy. Harry's nervous around Draco at first, and so at ease with Narcissa that they go out to the theatre together every few weeks- the entirety of Harry's friendship group is politely amused by this friendship, but Blaise just grins and buys Harry some proper dress robes, so he doesn't embarrass Narcissa.

Teddy's hair usually flashes between Harry's black, and the Weasleys' red, turning a bright pink when he sleeps, and an imitation of Remus's light brown when he's sad, but after the first time Draco babysits Teddy alone, his hair is pale blonde for two weeks straight, and Blaise starts bringing Draco around to their house more often; Harry cooks them Muggle meals, and Draco eventually arrives early to help him slice up vegetables and stir sauces, all without magic.

One year, early in August, Harry takes Hagrid to Diagon Alley and buys him a brand new wand. Hagrid cries all over him, absolutely soaking his shirt through, and begins night lessons with Harry, McGonnagall and Flitwick that year, along with teaching his own Care of Magical Creatures lessons. He graduates within four years, and Harry and Ginny take him to Romania to visit Charlie and Norbeta as a present.

When Ginny finds out she's expecting, Harry disappears for a week, holed up in Pansy's flat, before she drags him back to Ginny by the ear.

"You two are going to be the best parents possible. Your kid is going to be stupidly smart, and sickeningly brave, and the only thing you even need to worry about is if they inherit Ginerva's stupid hair colour," she snaps, rolling her eyes with Ginny frowns.

"But-" Harry protests, before Pansy punches his arm.

"God, considering you've saved the Wizarding World like eight times by now, you think you'd be smarter than this," she growls, storming out.

Harry begins decorating the spare room the next morning, after a night spent with Ginny and Blaise- who thanks him for coming back, because _Ginny kicks in her sleep, and if you're not there to block her, it's_ my _legs that get all bruised_ , and Blaise starts a list of possible names, firmly crossing out Albus from the list the second Harry writes it down.

"If it's a boy, James," Ginny says, when they ask her opinion. "And if it's a girl, Lily. We don't need a list."

James Sirius arrives eight months later, crying and screaming. He has brown eyes, and messy black hair, and even despite Ginny's genes, he's as dark skinned as Harry. Blaise spends most of the first month getting up to feed him, or rock him back to sleep, and Harry and Ginny relax quietly as they fall in love all over again. They name Millicent his godmother, and Blaise his godfather, and Hermione becomes all clucky when she meets him, and Ron doesn't look as terrified as everyone would expect, when three months later she announces that she's pregnant (George and Draco place bets on Ron's reactions to the birth. Draco puts in three gallons on Ron fainting, and George puts down five for him vomiting. Ginny wins eleven gallons overall with trifecta odds on vomiting, fainting, and two broken fingers from Hermione squeezing his hand).

Hermione suggests Rose, as a name, but Ron puts forward Minerva when McGonnagall visits Hermione in St. Mungos; she tears up, and excuses herself instantly, coming back five minutes later with flowers for Hermione and chocolates for Ron. She holds baby Minerva for two hours while Hermione naps, and promises to be the absolute best godmother. They call her Minnie, and Arthur gifts them many Minnie Mouse toys over the years, much to Ginny's amusement. Later, when Hermione falls pregnant again, she tentatively suggests Fabian to Molly, who cries for fifteen minutes straight, before saying that she's sure he would be absolutely _honoured_ to have a baby named after him. Minerva was a quiet baby, very serious and eager to learn. Fabian is an utter menace, and breaks two lamps and one vase in his first month home (Ron gleefully tells Harry and Ginny this, as the vase was a gift from Percy, and awfully ugly, and Harry feels like things have really come full circle).

Ginny goes back to Quidditch for the next two years, while Harry and Blaise look after James, before she falls pregnant again. She delivers twin girls, and when George finds out that there's another set of red headed twins in his family, he disappears for two weeks before finally joining Bill and Fleur for a visit to Harry and Ginny's house; he brings two stuffed toys; a dragon, and a hipogriff, and the twins love him, instantly. Lily and Ruby both have Ginny's red hair, and Harry's green eyes, and their skin is considerably lighter than Harry's and James'; they only look as though they're tanned. Ginny groans when Lee Jordan says they look exactly like Christmas elves; George laughs for the first time that day.

When Harry introduces Ruby to Hagrid, he cries harder than he did when Harry bought him a wand, and when Harry asks him to be Ruby's godfather, along with Hermione as the godmother, he practically fills his entire hut with tears. Pansy takes one look at the twins, and practically melts when Ginny tells her that she's Lily's godmother, along with Ron as her godfather. She spends hours curled up, reading to little Lily Luna and Ruby Dora, and within four months, she and Blaise are expecting as well, surprising everyone, but nobody more than Harry and Ginny.

"This better not change anything," Harry says, when they tell him. "Blaise is still gonna sleep here, right?" Ginny looks momentarily frightened at the thought that he might not, until Pansy scoffs.

"You already _have_ a girlfriend Potter, honestly," she scowls, and Harry grins as Blaise snuggles into him, head dropping on his shoulder, eyes instantly closing.

"But not a boyfriend," he argues, before winking at Ginny. "Though, Ginny probably _is_ more masculine than Blaise."

"And Blaise is _definitely_ prettier than I am," Ginny teases, flopping down on the couch next to Blaise, linking her fingers with Harry's, across Blaise's lap. Pansy sighs.

"Your co-dependency makes me sick," she says, before turning and walking out. Harry and Ginny laugh as Blaise lets out a snore, and then Ginny carries Blaise to bed, lying down next to him. Pansy joins them the next night, and Harry wonders aloud if it's time for a bigger bed, one to fit four people comfortably.

"We'd all end up cuddled together anyway, so I don't see the point," Blaise points out, and Pansy grudgingly agrees, snuggled up in between Ginny and Harry.

"Maybe we could just enlarge the house, and add on a few extra rooms. We can all live here together. If you want, I mean." She sounds unsure, and Harry can see her lip quivering in the moonlight streaming in from the window. He links their fingers together, and nuzzles his head on her shoulder.

"For someone so smart, you can be so stupid," he tells her, and when she laughs in response, her eyes light up.

The next day, Hermione, Luna and Draco come over to help magically add on two extra rooms, and Pansy and Blaise move into the larger one, and turn the second one into a nursery. Luna entertains Lily, and smiles beautifully when they tell her they named her after her; _I'll bring over my twins soon, they're sure to be the best of friends,_ she says. Draco eyes them all curiously for a while, watching as Blaise and Ginny tumble out of bed around noon, and Harry wordlessly conjures up a coffee for Pansy, before she even so much as _mentions_ that she wants one.

He asks Hermione and Luna, when they leave, and Hermione laughs while Luna looks strangely serious. "They're not like, _all_ dating, are they?"

Hermione pauses, and her mouth turns up, a bit. "I think they've just been through a lot together, and have a hard time being separated. It's different for everyone, after the war, I expect. This is how they cope."

Draco frowns. "But- relationships are between _two_ people, not _four_. And since when were Pansy and Blaise even interested in each other like that? It doesn't make sense," he protests.

"Oh, they aren't, not really," Luna says. "Pansy just wanted a baby, and Blaise was the best option, as he's rather handsome, and a good man to bring home to her parents. As well as that, Blaise, Ginny and Harry are already excellent parents to James and the twins, so she won't have to worry, this way. She'll have all the help she could possibly need."

"Do people actually do that? Have a baby with someone, just because it's convenient?" Draco asks, eyes wide. He's thinking of Astoria, and Scorpius, and how long it took them to decide if they were actually ready to have a child- he can't imagine someone just deciding it, like that, with someone they aren't in love with.

Luna nods energetically, the bun holding her wand up loosening; Hermione plucks it out, tucking it into her own waist band, almost without a thought. "Oh yes," she replies, smiling at Draco. "I slept with Rolf simply because I wanted a child, and he seemed like a good man. I thought our genes would blend quite nicely, and looking at Lysander and Lorcan, I was clearly correct. We live together simply for convenience sake, for the twins; it helps when one of us has to go away for a while, and the other can stay home with the boys."

Draco considers this for minutes, until he kisses both girls on the hand in goodbye, for weeks, as he teaches Scorpius how to ride the toy broom Narcissa gave him for Christmas, for months, as he and Astoria take Scorpius to Harry and Ginny's, Blaise and Pansy's house every third night for dinner, and then as he and Astoria say their vows the next year, Autumn leaves falling down around them (little Scorpius standing in between them, four years old and very excited to be a part of a wedding, looking darling in a little Muggle suit) Blaise at his side, and Daphne at hers, he wonders if his relationship will be lacking, somehow.

Harry, Ginny and Pansy sit front row at the wedding, hands all intertwined, all glowing as they grin up at Blaise, who's looking more radiant than ever in dark green robes. Pansy fiddles with James' hair, trying to tame it; Harry laughs, and tells her it's an entirely lost cause, Ruby and Lily grow restless sitting on Harry's lap, bouncing up and down and yelling out the few names they've learnt at random intervals (they have a lot of trouble pronouncing some of the names, and every time they see Scorpius they just scream _Sorp!_ ), Ginny quietly hushing them as Pansy and Blaise's baby boy, Colin, dozes in her arms. Draco catches his father giving them odd looks all night long, eventually cornering Draco during the reception, to ask what exactly is going on with all of them; _it isn't proper, is it? All four of them living and raising children together?_

"They're family," he answers, and slips away to ask Astoria if they can find a house near Harry's, because Scorpius deserves to be raised with this kind of never ending love in his life.

(Astoria fits in easily, her quick, nimble fingers braiding Harry's messy hair during movie night, Ruby sitting on her lap giggling, because _daddy's hair pretty!_ Her hand is steady as she paints beautiful drawings of their family; and in the end, it's this that endears her to everyone. Pansy's hands shake severely until she's had her third cup of coffee for the day, and Harry's not sure his own ever really stop. Astoria is steady, even; she fits in more beautifully than she did even before the war, calming them all down.

Eventually Harry starts showing up at the Malfoy house in the middle of the day, crawling into her arms to doze on the couch. Draco watches as Harry's shoulders relax when Astoria wraps her thin arms around him, and cooks them all lunch, making enough for Blaise, Ginny and Pansy, who almost always follow an hour later, all four kids in their arms. Exactly ten months after moving into a house down the road from the Potter's, Astoria and Draco bring home a beautiful baby girl, pale blonde hair and paler blue eyes. She's called Ophelia, and Ron groans _when are you going to end this stupid star name tradition;_ Ophelia throws up on him five minutes later, and Hermione laughs so hard she almost wets herself.)

* * *

James, Lily and Ruby grow up alongside their cousins, and other adopted family. Teddy Lupin falls in love with Victorie in his third year, and Ron, grumbling, hands a gleeful Pansy five gallons.

"There's definitely something morally wrong about betting on our children's love lives," Andromeda comments, at one point. Bill and Fleur just laugh, and welcome Teddy into their home with open arms; when Charlie comes to visit, he convinces (bribes) Teddy to morph into one of Bill's ex-girlfriends from his Hogwarts days, and surprise him when he's coming out of the shower. Fleur laughs and laughs until she cries, and Bill yells at Charlie until his voice is hoarse. Teddy, raised by the Weasley's and Potters just as much as his grandmother, doesn't even bat an eyelid, and just heads into Victorie's room to do 'homework.'

Lily inherits the Parseltongue ability, and Harry buys her a pet snake to take with her to Hogwarts in her first year; she names her Galya ( _meaning: God has redeemed-_ Pansy and Draco help her choose it) and after she gets sorted into Hufflepuff, she spends her nights sneaking down to the kitchens for snake treats, and patiently explaining why it shouldn't try and eat Ruby's owl, however tasty it might look.

She finds the Chamber of Secrets in her second year, despite Harry's refusal to help (Her Aunty Millicent writes her before Christmas, and tells her only that it's in a bathroom, and she'd have to find the rest out on her own, _like we did, when we were your age. Just because you're Potter's daughter doesn't mean you deserve freebies_ ), and after weeks of investigating, she finds it. She enlists the help of Fred Weasley II, as well as a concerned Teddy Lupin to clean it up properly- Hagrid helps dispose of the long dead Basilisk, giving it a proper funeral and all- and turns it into a club house of sorts, teaching the password to only one person from each house (Teddy Lupin, in Hufflepuff, Fred Weasley II, Gryffindor, Ruby, Slytherin and the Lovegood twins, Ravenclaw), ensuring that it remains private to those not interested in getting along with those in other houses. When Harry finds out, he takes 15 points away from Hufflepuff for disobeying a Professors direct orders to quit looking for it, and then gives her 30 points for helping to promote inter-house unity.

Harry cries in Blaise's arms on James' first night, when Teddy, in yellow and black robes with a Head Boy badge pinned to his chest, morphs his nose into all sorts of things in order to make all the first years laugh when they're homesick. James goes to Gryffindor, of course, like his namesake, and teams up with Molly and Roxanne Weasley almost instantly, to wreak absolute havoc on Hogwarts, rivalling even that of Fred and George (George sends Roxy a howler in her first year, loudly congratulating her when McGonnagall finally retires, only three weeks into the year, citing that the job had finally gotten too stressful for her to continue, alongside Percy's gently disapproving letter to Molly, saying that he wishes she was following in his footsteps, like her younger sister, Lucy. James receives a very stern lecture from Harry, after a DADA lesson, and the Marauders Map is sent to him the next day, signed _use this well, with love, Blaise, Mum & Pansy (don't tell dad)._)

Harry takes a secret pleasure in taking points away from Gryffindor when he catches James pranking, and then later giving them to Slytherin for Ruby, who excels at DADA and surprisingly Potions (she finds the Room of Requirement in her third year, and instantly shoots to the top of her class with Snape's old instructions, much to Harry's amusement. She receives a warning owl from Hermione a week after her dad finds out, pleading her to not try any of the spells, ever- _thought I suppose the 'Muffliato' charm will be quite useful when you start to bring home dates, only don't tell your father I said that_ ). Lily wins the cloak off of James in an intense game of three on three Quidditch in her first year, with the Lovegood twins on her team, and Fred and Victorie Weasley on James' team; Team Lily absolutely destroys Team James, and George and Angelina maintain that Fred must be adopted for at least two years, _losing to bloody Lovegoods and Potters, I am sincerely disappointed in you,_ Angelina says.

Ruby slips the map out of James's room in the summer between her second and third year, by borrowing Lily's snake to bypass the privacy charms Bill helped him put up; nobody would ever think to ward against a _snake_ , of all things (until the next summer, when Harry wards the entire house, bar Lily's room against them. Galya hisses angrily for two weeks every time someone aside from Lily visits her room, until Harry and Blaise build a little snake house leading out from Lily's bedroom window, right in the sun, which appeases her greatly).

James makes Beater in his third year, alongside Scorpius, as the Keeper, and wins Gryffindor the Quidditch Cup three years in a row, making Captain in his fifth year. Draco comes to all the matches, and forces Harry into Hermione's old Gryffinor scarves; Harry always spends the next week taking away points from students who managed to photograph him in red and gold, and cursing the severe lack of talent on the Slytherin team this year- Lily refuses to join, on the basis that she just doesn't have the time, between maintaining the highest grades in her year and trying to teach Parsletounge to Hagrid. Harry begs and bribes but she doesn't budge; _Colin will be at school next year, and you've been training him up as a seeker since birth, practically. You can survive one more year of us losing the Quidditch cup_.

When Ruby brings home Scorpius in Christmas holidays of their fifth year, and proudly introduces him as her boyfriend (which Ginny finds hilarious, as they've practically been raising Scorp right along with Draco and Astoria; they know who he is, and have been expecting this for at _least_ six years) Harry looks her dead in the eye and says _well, he's a Keeper alright_ and Draco laughs for three straight minutes; James threatens Ruby against breaking Scorpius' heart, who just laughs. _Just because you can't get a girlfriend_ , she teases, her eyes lighting up when Scorpius reaches for her hand. James looks genuinely shocked; _I don't have_ time _for a girlfriend!_ he insists. _Plus, there's only like, two people in all of Hogwarts that we aren't related to; dating opportunities are pretty thin._ The next summer, Lily brings home the eldest Patil daughter, Paola, and spends her nights curled up on her lap, trying to teach her Parseltounge, and Blaise laughs for an hour when he realises she's named after a flower as well; Lily doesn't speak to him for two days.

Let's tell this story:

Years after the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry's scar would not ache, but the boy would. The boy inside of him that carried each death along with him, tucked into his belt; Siruis, Remus, Fred, Tonks, Colin. His mum, his dad. Long ago Hermione had yelled at him, and told him he wasn't allowed to carry other people's pains, and losses, not when he had so many of his own.

Harry, the man, can see this. He slips away early every second Sunday morning to visit his parents, back at Godric's Hollow. He visits Fred, and Tonks; Remus and Sirius in same place, graves all laid out side by side. He visits Colin in a small church graveyard, in the Muggle world, and spends Sunday lunch with Dennis, pouring over Colin's old photographs; Dennis is turning them into a book, about the war. He's been in contact with everyone who was at Hogwarts during that time, getting stories to go with all the photographs; there's an entire chapter dedicated to Lavender and Parvati, pouting at the camera, and twirling their hair. Pravati suggests leaving their pages empty, aside from the photos. _They say it all,_ she says softly, smiling as Lavender, fourteen and cheerful, grins up at her.

When Harry gets home, Ginny's cooking breakfast, and Pansy's making coffee. Blaise is curled up asleep on the couch, snoring softly with the cat purring happily in his lap. During the holidays, there's never less than five kids making a mess somewhere, and during the school year, Draco and Astoria, Hermione and Ron, always come for lunch when they have the time.

Let's tell this story:

When Harry, forty three years old, wakes up in the middle of the night, it isn't because of a nightmare. It's because of Ginny kicking him in her sleep, or Blaise's light snoring. It's because of Pansy crawling back into bed after having a midnight snack, or the soft sounds of Draco and Astoria sneaking in to sleep on their couch. It's because of the scratching of a quill on parchment when Hermione's working late in their kitchen, because it gets the best lighting, because of Ron quietly making her coffee, and checking over her spelling. It's because of the quiet giggling coming from the kids rooms if they're home (and sometimes the loud explosions coming from Ruby's), or because of the sounds of the owls coming home, delivering a late night letter from whoever Colin's dating at that point (there's someone different mostly every month, both boys and girls, but exclusively Slytherins).

Twenty six years after the Battle at Hogwarts, after the battle Harry fought in from birth, Harry's scar would not ache, and neither would the man. All was well.


End file.
